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  • Day 56

    Up the Swannee!

    December 15, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today is wine tour day ( yet again do I hear you cry!?). We chose the half day version, as being lightweights these days, we thought that was all we would manage. Judging by the jollity we encountered on joining the all 'dayers' at midday, it was probably as well! They were a good group from all parts of the world, friendly and fun and a good time was definitely had by all.
    We had to make our way to Guildford (yes familiar, as is Bayswater close by) to join up with the revellers and decided to go by train. We caught the local bus along with the cricket crowd this morning (fun!) and walked up to the main railway station to catch the Midland train. We were in plenty of time, so had a coffee in the station cafe. In came two guys dressed in Santa short suits. English of course and you had to see it to believe it. They settled down to a full 'Lapland' breakfast. As we departed I said to the closest "Hope you have a good day Santa!" Back came the reply, quick as a flash "If you're a good girl I'll see you next week!!" Poetic licence of course, but message received and understood. Bet they went down a storm at the WACA with all the other Santas.
    The Swan Valley is the oldest Wine producing area in Western Australia. Margaret River has been spawned from here in much more recent timesThe entrepreneur involved was one Thomas Waters, who sailed with Captain James Stirling in 1829 as ships botanist. Stirling is a big name here also. They stopped at the Cape for supplies and Thomas purchased some Verdelho vines and brought with him. He was granted a small section of government land in the Swan Valley, planted his vines and the rest as they say is history. Here are some interesting facts for you picked up during the day.
    Western Australia is so huge an area, that if it were a separate country it would be the 10th largest in the world. Quite something to try and take on board isn't it?
    It takes on average 125 grapes to make one standard glass of wine and 83/84 percent of a bottle of wine is water. Water is terribly good for you, so clearly we all need to drink more wine!
    We visited three wineries: Windy Creek Estate in Herne Hill (yes, another familiar name), Sittella for a tasting plus lunch and Heaford Glen. Lots of different wines on offer, some more drinkable than others, but it of course very much personal taste. We selected those we thought we would find interesting and left the others. We then moved on to a German beer tasting at Elmers in the Valley, for the guys mainly. I gave my share to Peter, who said they were ok but there was nothing he would purchase, which is of course the acid test. This was followed by a chocolate tasting, yum yum, which completed the afternoon, followed by a very good quality ice cream. We trundled back to Perth and made our way back to the apartment with the cricket crowd again, catching up on the day's play as we did so. Some good news, some not so good. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
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