Sunday 1 June 2014

Winery Hopping - McLaren Vale

After almost 3 months of planning and swapping work, my sister Georgia, our friend Kyla and myself finally settled on a day that would suit all to go winery hopping/lunch down at McLaren Vale, South Australia. 

We didn't have many expectations for the day - we just wanted to eat some good food, taste some good wine and have a relaxing day. 

We knew we wanted to go to The Elbow Room for lunch and from there planned our day around there.  


I'd heard wonderful things about Coriole Vineyards and the views from the top of their hill. I also knew of their olives and oils from working in a supermarket for a good number of years and was quite interested in tasting their wines.

Their reds were just divine! Their Dancing Fig was a fantastic example of Big, Bold flavours that McLaren Vale reds boast. I also really enjoyed their Sangiovese - it was a light red, one that would be able to be easily drunk on it's own, compared to the DF that I think would be better with a good hearty meal. 


We happened to get extremely lucky with the day we picked as well. The previous week or so and been cold, miserable and rainy and then the day we headed off, it was blue skies and sunshine! So we took some obligatory pictures on the lawn. Below is my sister Georgia and I…..I swear we didn't deliberately colour co-ordinate ;) 


After spending a good couple of hours at lunch, we were back on the road again. But not before popping next door to Shingleback wines. We had heard they did a "Chocolate Wine" and decided to try it as it combined two great loves - chocolate and wine! It was a lovely drop and would be good as a dessert red. 

Next stop was Hither & Yon, located a Willunga. Kyla was the main one tasting there, as I was holding out for our next stop. However, she recommends heading there for a different take on some old classics.  If we'd had more time, I would've loved to spend some more time wandering around Willunga, but we spent a tad too long at lunch to be able to do that.

Our last winery stop was Wirra Wirra and the one I was most eagerly anticipating. I have been a fan of their blend, Churchblock for a good number of years now and if I see it on a menu, it was always be chosen over everything else. Yes, that is a giant Churchblock bottle made of corks located in the carpark below ;) Going into the tasting there, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try some of their other wines. Walking into the tasting room was like walking into someone's living room, with the added extra of that person having a long bar! The fire was lit and the staff were very welcoming as we stepped in. 

I started off with their Mrs Wrigley Moscato, which was a lovely and light red moscato - very easy to drink; could see myself easily drinking an entire bottle in a sitting at some stage! On that day, they were also tasting one of their additions to the McLaren Vale Scarce Earth program; the Tempranillo, which was just a gorgeous wine. But my favourite that I tasted was their Rare Tawny. I love myself a good Port and theirs was incredibly smooth was what I ended up purchasing from them, with the promise to myself to head back soon and get more others. 


Our last stop before heading home was the Robern Menz outlet shop. The girls were pretty keen to stop there to stop on chocolates and other wonderful treats ;) 

A huge thank you must go to all of the people we encountered over our day out - you made it as wonderful as it was :) 



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