• A ticket to ...
January 2019

Sydney and Surfers Paradise

A 15-day adventure by A ticket to ... Read more
  • Trip start
    January 13, 2019

    All the way across the map

    January 13, 2019 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    First time on Singapore Airlines, and first time in Singapore (airport only). Possibly also the first time flying over Iran.

    Not a bad list of firsts for one day. So how do I rate them?

    Flying over Iran - disappointingly, dark. Couldn't see a thing.

    Singapore Airlines - fine. Not great, certainly I dispute their claimto be 'World's Best', but fine. Lovely, original uniform for the women, smart but uninteresting suits for the men. Food was edible (saitan tasty, noodles a bit bland, and the mango jelly with sweetcorn in is not something I'll be trying at home), service pleasantly unremarkable. They don't do between-meals drinks rounds as often as the other ones I've flown long haul with recently. You can ring for a drink but often I'm not quite awake or thirsty enough to bother, but will grab a glass of juice from a tray if offered. So we arrived at Singapore a little dehydrated. And the footrest bothered me. Down it means the underseat space can be used only for the tiniest of bags; up it's a shin-batterrer and means it's impossible to stretch your legs out when the seat is reclined.

    Singapore airport - terrible carpets, wonderful butterfly garden, indoor trees and koi ponds. And very helpful staff. Hasn't knocked Incheon off my top spot, but it's certainly a league up from Heathrow. There's a great view of the very busy harbour as you come in to land. I recommend staying away from the calamondin and sour plum juice, though. It's one of the oddest things I've tasted.

    Having said that, I didn't try the water chestnut juice, the chocolate-coated crispy durian omelette, or the salted egg flavour crispy fish skin sold in packets like crisps. Nor do I have any intenton of doing so.
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  • And more map

    January 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Landed at Sydney - a very slick airport with machines for everything. To save queues at the e-epassport gates, there are preliminary e-tickets. So you queue for an e-ticket from a machine that scans your passport. Having got that, you queue at the e-passport gate, which doesn't want your passport but scans your face. Not sure it's much of a time saver but it does break up the queing.

    The train to the city centre is a fast, clean double decker. It dropped us just half a mile from the hotel, but because of tiredness and luggage we decided to get a taxi. Took a lift to the level labelled 'Concourse', where found a map that showed taxis at exit 4, and exit 4 near us. The only slight hitch was that the exit level is not the concourse level, and thr map showing a lift going up amd down led us to a lift that only went down. A circuit of that level led us eventually roind some building works to the way out. Which revealed more building works where the taxis should have been. I suspect the walk to find a taxi ended up as actually longer tham the one to the hotel would have been.
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  • That's a funny looking pigeon

    January 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Having had dinner, breakfast, dinner, breakfast over the past 3 days, and somehow lost a chunk of Sunday down the back of the sofa, the first order of business on Monday was a walk in the sunshine to reset our internal clocks, and at least 1 lunch.

    The park next to the Chinese Friendship Garden is well supplied with cafes. And wherever there are cafes, there are pigeons (and, if you're anywhere near the sea, gulls demanding bugers with menaces). The pigeons here look a little unusual.

    (There are also actual pigeons, queuing behind the ibises for crumbs. They are the mankiest looking pigeons I have ever seen - even by the standards of manky city pigeons. No sign of bumblefoot, but every single one looks as if it's fallen into a pan of chip fat.)

    Spent the afternoon exploring Darling Harbour, reading menus for future reference, playing on the science platform, and fantasy shopping for boats at the naval museum.
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  • Obligatory opera house photo

    January 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We saw the traditional view of the opera house from across the harbour, but what's the point of taking a photo of something so well known? It's much more interesting close up - the roof is tiled in a complex pattern using 2 shades of white tiles. You can't see that on the postcards.Read more

  • Victoria and Elizabeth

    January 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Breakfast of fruit loaf in the beautiful Queen Victoria building, then up to see the clocks in action. The more elaborate one just turns round; the more modern castle clock displays a series of royal dioramas ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Clock ). It was a present from the Queen, who also left the building management a letter to be opened in 2085 - far enough away that she might have taken the opportunity to actually say what she thinks.

    I managed to resist several floors of wonderful clothes shops, but finally succumbed in the basement and ended up with 3 wafty summer dresses from Kitten d'Amour. Good thing I brought the large suitcase.
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  • First day of explorations

    January 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    After breakfast amd shopping we explored a bit of the city.

    Up to the Observatory first to get an overview and meet some new birds - I've not identified these ones yet. There were a lot of exercise classes going on in the surrounding grounds: lots of boxing practice; a group of older Japanese ladies doing gentle stretches under the shade of a tree; and an exhausting looking circuits class climbing trees and thrashing battle ropes around in the full midday sun.

    Walked down through The Rocks - an arty, historic district that was saved from redevelopment in the 1970s by an alliance of the Builders' Union and a heritage group. Finished by walking up to Circular Quay then back down alongside the Botanic gardens.

    After all that walking we wanted a substantial dinner, and found an excellent Indian restaurant in an unlikely location - one side is inside a shopping centre, the other overlooks the tourist trap restaurant strip in Darling harbour. Fabulous food, beautifully presented. Starter pictured (fragment of poppadom, photographer's own).
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  • Naked Duck

    January 16, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After the previous night's Indian banquet we only wanted a light breakfast. Bit of French toast with some fresh fruit seemed a suitable choice.

    What turned up wasn't quite as light as expected.

  • Are you being served?

    January 16, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    "What's interesting over there?", a confused local asked as we were taking photos of buildings that are entirely unremarkable to locals, and never make the guide books. Where to start with explaining the notablility of Grace Brothers department store?

    Started the day with a lizard spot at the Chinese Friendship Garden, then wandered along to the university - via Grace Brothers - to meet Tabitha. Lunch of vegan yum cha (which seems to be the local name for dim sum), a meander through an exhibition in the library, then to the Botanic Gardens for more lizards.
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  • Springwood

    January 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Wednesday was hot - 29°C - so we looked forward to a day up in the mountains on Thursday for a bit of relief. Turns out the Australian climate doesn't work the same way as the Austrian one. Here the cold air tumbles down the mountain to cool the valley below, so the temperature at around 1,200 ft was forecast to be 8 to 10 degrees hotter than at sea level.

    Nevertheless, we headed up - after an extended wrangle with the train ticketing system, which is designed to not sell anyone a ticket Double decker train, rather older and less swish than the one pictured, with very Australian notices.
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  • Three sisters

    January 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our first stop in the Blue Mountains was a lookout over the 3 sisters - figures from the dreamtime. The views are spectacuar, but the part that cannot be captured in a photo is the fragrance. Stepping out to the edge, waves of scent come up from the gums, pines and warm rocks, enveloping everything.

    Having said it can't be captured in a photo, you can actually see the scent - the resinous vapour causes Reyleigh scattering that gives the Blue Mountains their name.
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  • Scenic point

    January 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Most of the scenic views are on my other camera, so will need to wait for a later post. Its a beautiful area, also overlooking the 3 sisters, with lots of ways to view it.

    We started with a short, almost horizonal, cable car ride across a gorge and past a waterfall. Bit short on water at the moment, but plenty of birds flying around. Some were definitely cocakatoos, others may have been, or some other parroty thing, but were too far away to be certain.

    After that we rode down into the valley on the world's steepest railway, which is impressively steep. The seats are park bench style, facing forwards, but tipped back at an angle more usually associated with a visit to the dentist. Tricky to get into, and impossible to do so elegantly. Once we'd wriggled into place they close the doors, warn you to hang on to any valuables, and set off. A few seconds in you realise that the steeply sloping platform was the shallow part of the journey - the train lurches suddenly downwards and the reclined seats become bolt upright ones.

    At the bottom theres a choice of boardwalks through the rainforest - an hour for the full circuit, half an hour for the animatronic dinosaur display, or 10 minutes for those who find 36°C a bit on the warm side (the record fhere is 37°, and they were forecast 39° for the next day). At the end we took the cable car back up, with anothe r good view of the 3 sisters and - according to the guide - through a very clear transition from the rainforest at the bottom to the gum forest at the top. If you don't know the local trees all that well it's not a particularly obvious difference.
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  • Clyde

    January 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 31 °C

    There is a very secure rail yard at Clyde. Train shed and loading yards all surrounded by high fences topped with razor wire. There's just one tiny flaw in the system - they need to be able to get the trains in and out. So the fence that runs along the bottom and up both sides just stops at the top end, and anyone who had been prevented from climbing over by the razor wire could simply walk around.Read more

  • Tasman sea

    January 18, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Friday was another scorcher of a day, and Derek had a pile of marking to do, so we took the ferry to the end of the Harbour - about a 40 minute ride on a fast catamaran. Watson's Bay is on a tiny strip of peninsula, so from the Sudney harbour side it's only a 5-minute walk across the land to the Tasman Sea on the other side. Bit rough, thpugh, and no easy way down to the water, so I wasn't able to add it to my 'paddled in' list.

    We found a shady table at an old-fashioned milk bar with carved wooden doors and a beaten copper counter. Derek worked, I read, and we both worked our way through the soda flavours.

    We'd been told that Watson is the place for chips, so we got a box to eat in the park. Excellent chips, but we were horrified to discover they charge extra - $1.20! - for ketchup or vinegar (and the vinegar is clear, not malt). Very impressed by the politeness of the gulls though - they don't mug people for chips, just stand around looking hopeful.

    Back in Sydney we found they were setting up a Chinese night market in the road behind our hotel. Had a quick look before we headed off for dinner - and were glad we did,, becaise by the time we got back it was *heaving*. Just enough of a clear patch to take a photo of what may be Sydney's prettiest tourist information kiosk, which was all lit up for the evening.
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  • An ideal fragment of China

    January 19, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C

    The Chinese Friendship Garden is quite small on the outside - no more than a 2 minute walk along each edge - and most of the middle is taken up by a lake, but it still manages to be a good 2 hour walk around the inside. Traditional Chinese garden design creates winding paths lead up and down hills and across the water, holes in trees and walls are designed to frame views into the next section, and there's plenty to look at. Elaborate ceramic and wooden screens, interesting rocks, cases of artefacts, bonsai trees, bonsai mountains (yes, you read that correctly - tiny mountains, that are home to even tinier pagodas, boats and philosophers, with a precise misting system to ensure moss grows in all the right places), carved stone plaques, tiny zodiac figures hidden in the undergrowth and hanging from trees, and water dragons everywhere.

    It's not quite as serene as the photos imply, though - it appears to be home to every cricket and grasshopper in Sydney. And they are LOUD.
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  • Off to Surfers Paradise

    January 19, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    After a week on the lookout, I finally tracked down a lamington at the airport. I'd already had banana bread, a breakfast of fruit loaf, and tried vegemite (verdict: marmite after a partially successful anger management course) so I'm well on the way to the full set of traditional Aussie foodstuffs. Just Tim Tams, tasty cheese and a pie to go.

    Pleasant flight with Virgin Australia. We had an exit row, so lots of legroom. And it's one of the few that still gives out free drinks and snacks even on very short flights. Taxi from the airport to the hotel, with a driver who talked constantly but very quietly. Sometimes to us, sometimes to Google - and it was rarely possible to tell which. Some of the bits I could hear were quite interessting, though, and he pointed out some useful things around the hotel.

    Surfers is definitely more resort than city, and pretty built up. But we have a view of the distant mountains from our balcony, and it's virtually impossible to be more than a 5-minute walk from the sea.
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  • Persian feast

    January 20, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Wonderful dinner - the dips are smoked aubergine, hummus, and a raita-like yoghurt and cucumber dip topped with dried mint and dried rose petal powder. The main dishes are ghorme sabzi (halloumi, red beans and dried limes) and fesenjan (mushrooms pomegranate and walnuts), both with saffron rice.

    Strolled back to the hotel along the esplanade, under a full moon. We may be 4.5 degrees off the true tropics here but the air smells tropical - full of exotic fruit and heady flowers.
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  • Why I'm not swimming in the sea

    January 22, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Normally I like to swim - or at least paddle - in every sea I encounter. Even in wintry Vladivostok I found a crack in the ice large enough to briefly dip a finger in the water.

    Surfers Paradise should be perfect for my first dunk in the Coral Sea. The weather (and I assume the water) is warm, the beach is litter free and gently sloping, the sand is fine and soft, the surf big enough for a brief tumble but not enough to pose a threat.

    But there are these all over the beach, and in the water. Bluebottles. Similar to the Portugese man o'war.

    Physalia utriculus is smaller than Physalia physalis - the main stinging tentacle is only about 1 metre long. But the sting apparently causes 'extreme pain, which usually subsides after 20-40 minutes unless the venom gets into the lymph nodes'.

    Think I'll stick to the pool.
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  • The clock

    January 23, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our hotel balcony overlooks the Clock Hotel. The notable feature of which is, unsurprisingly, a clock. This lives on a turret on one corner of the building, and at every quarter hour it plays a tune while large but unidenfiable figures parade aound the turret. One saving grace is that it is not the same tune every 15 minutes. There are repeats, but on a cycle of 5 hours or so.

    The tunes have been transposed for clock bells by someone more interested in showing off the number of bells than in a strictly accurate rendition. And I suspect if you asked them to sing the tunes in question there would be significant passages of lalalalalas. Despite these obstacles we have so far identified Brahms lullaby, The Hills are Alive, Edelweiss, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Auld Lang Syne, and When the Saints go Marching In, Greensleeves, and something that might possibly be The Blue Danube, although I'm not sure Strauss himself could swear to it.
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  • Witches Falls winery

    January 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    If you ever find yourself heading for the Gold Coast, immediately contact Helen at Ambience on Tour and book yourself a day trip. She has various types on offer - art, breweries and cheese, distilleries. We chose wine, with bonus wildlife stop.

    She picked us up from the hotel door at just after 9 and drove us up to Tambourine mountain, with a bit of a guided tour on the way. The first stop was Witches Falls winery. Like most of the wineries in the area they grow almost all their grapes some way away, in the Granite belt, but unlike the others they ship the whole grapes up the mountain and do the whole process on site.

    Grapes are first shaken loose from their stems. This releases a bit of juice, so reds and rosés sit for between 4 hours and 2 weeks to macerate in tall, unsealed steel vessels before pressing between 2 large air cushions and then filtering out the skins and pips. For fermentation some are inoculated with 2 strains of yeast (1 French, 1 South African) while others use wild yeasts.

    We tasted:

    2018 Granite Belt Verdhelo
    (coinoculated and 6 months in a stainless steel vat). Light straw colour, soft yeast on nose with pale tropical fruits. Taste stronger than expected from nose - fruity but with mineral undertone, quite acid but not puckering.

    2018 Granite Belt Sauvignon Blanc (coinoculated and 6 months in a stainless steel vat). V light colour- barely tinted and just a hint of elderflower nose, elderflower and lemon, hint of greenish tart apple

    2017 Granite Belt Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc (oaked for a few months).
    Much more straw in the colour, nose a little rubbery, buttery eggy toast. Taste rounder than the coinoculated, more tropical fruit. Lychee?

    2016 Granite Belt Wild ferment Verdhelo (oaked 2016l
    Nose butter and gooseberries, then an oak burst adds warmth and a bit of woody tannin under the fruit.

    2018 Saignée rose - syrah and black muscat, left on skin for 4 hpurs. powerfully fragrant - roses and strawberry with a hint of spice. Syrupy soft flavour, a bit more currant than the nose - just a hint. Primarily strawberry, wirh a lovely creamy texture that's just a little dry at the end.

    2017 Tempranillo wild ferment
    Slightly purplish red, nose of summer pudding with plenty of blackcurrant, flavour very close match to nose - slightly sharp

    2017 Garnasha wild ferment
    Pinky red, warm soft nose, sunned wood, hint of powdery violet. Initially smoother flavour but more tannins as it goes on.

    2016 wild ferment monastrell (mourvedre grape in Grance, monastrell in spain)
    Leather polish and herbs, sweeter on the taste than the nose and less tannin than expected, but flavour grows in size - bit of lamp oil, lots of fruit, sour cherries, dark chocolate, big legs.

    2015 Prophesy Merlot (Prophesy is the premium range) French oak barrel for 2 years, dark but not purpley, nose of French oak vanilla, BIG flavour, oaky, dark, cherries and chocolate. Tannins definite but relatively brief leaving a fruit finish.

    Moscato rose 8.2% rose and candied pineapple nose, taste pf rose and muscat grapes. Lovey drinkble light sweet wine - would go with a light pudding (morrocan orange cake) but good alone.

    Classic Tawny - syrah fortified with brandy. Port style. Add a layer each year. 20 y o. Lovely raisiny port style - sweeter and a little lighter than a typical port. Goes beautifully with the local mild bries that we tried: 1 truffled and 1 ashed.
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  • Tambourine mountain distillery

    January 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Wattle toffee
    Toasted wattle seed liqueuer - 20% gorgous smooth nutty, maply, smoky.

    Vodka (lemon), Limnoncello. Chocomint (taste like a bittermint), butterwhisky (more complex butterscotch), wild plum and elderflower (also contains rose), violetta parma violet), gingerbread (more sweet than ginger - soft), Australian herb.Read more

  • Mason wines

    January 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Verdelho 2017 steel tank nose has the creaminess of a macadamia, apppe with a hint of papaya; flavour much crisper - crunchy apple, sharper than the nose - vinho verde youth. Prob needs food.

    2015 chardonnay unoaked
    Nose green and herbacious. Taste quote christmasy - satsuma and clove, sharp, bit acidic.

    2016 semillion sav blan
    There was a fire at harvest time, so grapes slightly smoked. Brings out the umami. Sharp green gooseberry but warmed by the smoke, which really comes through at the back

    2018 picnic white (vedelho late harvest, 10%) nose mango and dried apricot, taste light and sweet. Not quite pudding sweetness but heading that way.

    2018 rose cab sav merlot
    Light salmon pink, soft warmish nose strawbwrry and sage. Yaste a bit sharper

    Picnic red -semi sweet shoraz. Almost porty when pairrd with food, drier alone.

    2016 shiraz redred Spicy, quite tannic, nose warmer and softer than taste. Sharp blackcurrant compote.

    2016 Shiraz cab sav sligbtly blueer red. Quite savoury and tannic, sour cherry, dense flavour. From a single block booth lane vineyard.

    Petit verdeaux 2014 cellar door collection. Nose soft, warm powdery plum and violet, taste is BAM sharp and tannins, plum stone. Not unpleasnt but oddly citeussy. Ised in bordeaux as art of a blend.

    Late harvest VCV 2016 viogner, chardonnay and verdhelo. Dark Greek honeycomb nose, v sweet but not cloying- good acid balance, lemon curd with a clear honey finish

    Lunch of felafel buddha bowl with avocado, tahini, pumpkin, quinoa, halloumi. Nougat and chocolate ice creams.
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  • Scenic point and Heritage wines

    January 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Witches falls winery - Tambourine mountain

    2018 Verdhelo , granite belt
    2 yeasts (1 French 1 South African), stainless vat 6 months. Light straw colour, soft yeast on nose with pale tropical fruits. Taste stronger than expected from nose - fruity but with mineral undertone, quite acid but not puckering.

    2018 Co,-innoculated Sav blanc - stainless vat.
    V light colour- barely tinted and just a hint of elderflower nose, elderflower and lemon, hint of greenish tart apple.

    2017 Wild Sav blanc - oaked for a few months.
    Much more straw in the colour, nose a little rubbery, buttery eggy toast. Taste rounder than the co-inoculated, more tropical fruit. Lychee?

    Wild ferment verdhelo - oaked 2016
    Nose butter and gooseberries, then oak burst adds warmth and , with a bit of woody tannin underneath.

    2018 Saignée rose - syrah and black muscat, left on skin for 24 hours. powerfully fragrant - roses and strawberry with a hint of spice. Syrupy soft flavour, a bit more currant than the nose - just a hint. Primarily strawberry, with a lovely creamy texture that's just a little dry at the end.

    2017 Tempranillo wild ferment
    Slightly purplish red, nose of summer pudding with plenty of blackcurran, flavour very close match to nose - slightly sharp.

    2017 Garnasha wild ferment
    Pinky red, warm soft nose, sunned wood, hint of powdery violet. Initially smoother flavour but more tannins as it goes on.

    2016 wild ferment monastrell (mourvedre grape in Grance, monastrell in spain).
    Leather polish and herbs, sweeter on the taste than the nose and less tannin than expected, but flavour grows in size - bit of lamp oil, lots of fruot, sour cherries, dark chocolate, big legs.

    2015 Merlot (prophesy range) barrel for 2 years, dark but not purple, nose of French oak vanilla, BIG flavour, oaky, dark, cherries and chocolate. Tannins definite but relatively brief leaving a fruit finish.

    Moscato rose 8.2%
    Rose and candied pineapple nose, taste of rose and muscat grapes. Lovey drinkable light sweet wine - would go with a light pudding (morrocan orange cake) but good alone.

    Classic Tawny - syrah fortified with brandy. Port style. Add a layer each year. 20 y o. Lovely raisiny port style - sweeter and a little lighter than a typical port. Goss beautifully with mild truffled brie.

    Tambourine mountain Distillery

    Wattle toffee
    Toasted wattle seed liqueuer - 20% gorgous smooth nutty, maply, smoky.

    Limnoncello.

    Chocomint (taste like a bittermint).

    Butterwhisky (more complex butterscotch).

    Wild plum and elderflower (also contains rose).*

    Violetta parma violet).

    Gingerbread (more sweet than ginger - soft), *

    Australian herb.

    * These 2 we were given in a blind tasting - selected from their range of about 40 flavours - and we were able to identify both. Derek got the rose in the plum amd elderflower (a flavour that's not listed) and I got the other 2 components).

    Mason wines

    Verdelho 2017 steel tank.
    Nose has the creaminess of a macadamia, apple with a hint of papaya; flavour much crisper - crunchy apple, sharper than the nose - vinho verde type young flavours . Prob needs food.

    2015 chardonnay unoaked.
    Nose green and herbacious. Taste quite christmassy - satsuma and clove, sharp, bit acidic.

    2016 semillion sav blanc.
    There was a fire at harvest time, so grapes slightly smoked. Go ea are really.good effect. Brings out the umami. Sharp green gooseberry but warmed by the smoke, which really comes through at the back.

    2018 picnic white (vedelho late harvest, 10%).
    Nose mango and dried apricot, taste light and sweet. Not quite pudding wine sweetness but heading that way.

    2018 rosé, cab sav merlot.
    Light salmon pink, soft warmish nose strawberry and sage. Taste a bit sharper

    Picnic red - semi sweet shiraz.
    Almost porty when paired with food, drier alone.

    2016 shiraz red, unspecified grape .
    Spicy, quite tannic, nose warmer and softer than taste. Sharp blackcurrant compote.

    2016 Shiraz cab sav.
    Sligbtly bluer red. Quite savoury and tannic, sour cherry, dense flavour. From a single block in Booth Lane vineyard.

    Petit verdeaux 2014 cellar door collection.
    Nose soft, warm powdery plum and violet, taste is BAM - sharp and tannins, plum stone. Not unpleasnt but oddly citrussy. Grape is used in Bordeaux as art of a blend.

    Late harvest VCV 2016 viogner, chardonnay and verdhelo.
    Dark Greek honeycomb nose, v sweet but not cloying - good acid balance, lemon curd with a clear honey finish

    Heritage wines

    Petit blanc

    Fiano - rare grape, interesting, bit sharp.

    Club red - roses, light summer red. Nose and taste more rosé-ish.

    Tempranillio lot. Edition 2017 - hefty purple red.

    Bootleggers tawny port - raisiny, smooth.

    Moonshine madness - chocolate coffee liqueuer port-alike - pure tiramisu smell. Made with some own-made brandy.
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