Barossa Valley

Today is wine tasting day! I've been looking forward to exploring the countryside and getting to try some amazing Australian wines. We got up early, had some breakfast, and Allan walked over to pick up the rental car while I had a shower and got ready. We drove about an hour over to the Barossa Valley. It wasn't a difficult drive.

Our first stop was Seppeltsfield. Ian recommended this one. When we walked into the tasting room, we were surrounded by an open, light room with a few circular bars with stools. We were directed to our table where a friendly barman talked us through how the tasting works. There were 12 wines in total from a list of whites, reds, and fortifieds. We got 6 samples each with our tasting. Allan and I decided to alternate and share so we could taste them all. We had some Riesling form a couple of different years as well as some Shiraz and granache blends. Red wine seems to grow the best here, predominantly Shiraz. We had chatted a fair bit with the bartender, so he gave us a taste of a 20 year old tawny and the 10 so we could compare the two. The tawny was nice, but so smooth with the extra ten years. Sadly, much too high in price for us, so we settled for the ten. Our last wine was a sparkling red, another bonus from the barman, and it was definitely one of my favorites of the Seppeltsfield wines. We spent more time than expected at Seppeltsfield but it was time well spent.

Our next stop, based on the barman's recommendation, was Kalleskes. They had a very extensive wine list and a lot of different tasting options. It was hard to choose! In the end I went for New and Exciting and Allan went for Big and Bold. The wines were all amazing, but mine definitely stole the show. One that really stood out was an amber wine made with white grape skins that gave it a really unique flavor. I had another that used stems rather than oak barrels to develop tannins. They also told a story with each of the wines and how they got their names. It was like a history of the winery and family through the bottles. The sparkling red at the end of my flight was also amazing. Sparkling red is a dangerous wine to drink. At the end of our tasting we paid, and reluctantly left all of the delicious wines behind.

Down the street from Kalleskes was Murray Street Vineyards. This was probably our least favorite winery of the day. It was a relaxed atmosphere and we did the tasting on comfy chairs and they had a nice garden, but the wines didn't particularly stand out. The woman doing our tasting also appeared to be trying to get some admin done while running our tasting so we stood up to pay at one point and she said we still had two wines each to go! We drank our wines, but weren't even tempted by anything here to take home, unlike the previous two wineries.

Once we finished at Murray Street, we rushed up the street to Alkina. We arrived past the final time to do a tasting, but they let us do one anyway which was nice. The bottles at Alkina had some lovely designs and each bottle had a story that went with it which was lovely, similar to Kalleskes.

After Alkina, we were pretty hungry, and Allan managed to find a winery that stayed open after 5 that also did some pretty decent charcuterie boards (lots of choices on them not just cheese). We went to Z Wines and got a large platter and shared some more wine. The sparkling red stood out to me, same as in Seppeltsfield and Kalleske. We ate so quickly, and definitely should have eaten earlier in the day.

It was about an hour to get back to Ian's. The drive went pretty quick though and we were back before we knew it. We cracked open the tawny from Seppeltsfield when we got back and shared some with Ian while talking about our day of wine tasting before heading to bed.Okumaya devam et