We recently returend from Australia and cellar door tastings in
McClaren Vale SA and Yarra Valley, Victoria.

D'Arenburg has a lovely cellar door and a great restaurant with
reasonable by the glass offerings.

Across the main road is a smaller operation Lloyd Brothers with
fantastic olive products and two Shiraz offerings which are IIRC not
available outside of cellar door or order by mail. The wines were as
good as the olive products 2 Shiraz are offered a an Estate Shiraz at
22AUD and White Chalk at 45AUD both wines were medium to full bodied
in an easy to appraoch style with fully integrated oak and lovely
nose. I was more than usually upset with current laws requiring wines
to go into suitcases and passed on the wines :-(

In the Adelaide Hills we ran across Lane Vinyards which offers a full
line of wines and a cellar door bistro with one of our more expensive
meals of the trip courtesy of $15-18 AUD wine by the glass (Beverly
actually almost got on for $30 but the waitresss did feel compelled to
note the price-prices not offfered on the menu) Wine was good but not
better than the D'Arenburg product which was offered at $5 -8AUD for
bottles in the 25-35 cellar door price range. Lane's wines were good
but not for value with a meal.

In the Yarra we found several nice wines that are cellar door only
Yering Farm comes to mind as a good place for tastings and wines
worthy of purchase. At Yarra Dairy we sampled from some smaller
producers Payten and Jones Wine and Bobar. Wines were poured by family
members. Good conversation, better wine.

Final dinner was at our hotels restaurant Rae's accompanied by the
hotel's brand Balgownie Estate (much of which is Bendigo) these are
available in US through Old Bridge in Napa. Not much on notes but I
remember the Cab Merlot was very Bordeaux inspired.

I was not drinking much wine on this trip as it was agravating the
gall bladder but I did manage a glass of the cab merlot on the last
night and the first couple of days in the Adelaide area were
unaffected so . . .

On Nov 6, 1:34*pm, Joseph Coulter > wrote:
> We recently returend from Australia and cellar door tastings in
> McClaren Vale SA and Yarra Valley, Victoria.
>
> D'Arenburg has a lovely cellar door and a great restaurant with
> reasonable by the glass offerings.
>
> Across the main road is a smaller operation Lloyd Brothers with
> fantastic olive products and two Shiraz offerings which are IIRC not
> available outside of cellar door or order by mail. The wines were as
> good as the olive products 2 Shiraz are offered a an Estate Shiraz at
> 22AUD and White Chalk at 45AUD both wines were medium to full bodied
> in an easy to appraoch style with fully integrated oak and lovely
> nose. I was more than usually upset with current laws requiring wines
> to go into suitcases and passed on the wines :-(
>
> In the Adelaide Hills we ran across Lane Vinyards which offers a full
> line of wines and a cellar door bistro with one of our more expensive
> meals of the trip courtesy of $15-18 AUD wine by the glass (Beverly
> actually almost got on for $30 but the waitresss did feel compelled to
> note the price-prices not offfered on the menu) Wine was good but not
> better than the D'Arenburg product which was offered at $5 -8AUD for
> bottles in the 25-35 cellar door price range. Lane's wines were good
> but not for value with a meal.
>
> In the Yarra we found several nice wines that are cellar door only
> Yering Farm comes to mind as a good place for tastings and wines
> worthy of purchase. At Yarra Dairy we sampled from some smaller
> producers Payten and Jones Wine and Bobar. Wines were poured by family
> members. Good conversation, better wine.
>
> Final dinner was at our hotels restaurant Rae's accompanied by the
> hotel's brand Balgownie Estate (much of which is Bendigo) these are
> available in US through Old Bridge in Napa. Not much on notes but I
> remember the Cab Merlot was very Bordeaux inspired.
>
> I was not drinking much wine on this trip as it was agravating the
> gall bladder but I did manage a glass of the cab merlot on the last
> night and the first couple of days in the Adelaide area were
> unaffected so . . .

Sounds like the trip was great. Too bad the gallbladder was messing
with the enjoyment.

On Sun, 6 Nov 2011 17:28:55 -0800 (PST), Lawrence Leichtman
> wrote:



>> I was not drinking much wine on this trip as it was agravating the
>> gall bladder but I did manage a glass of the cab merlot on the last
>> night and the first couple of days in the Adelaide area were
>> unaffected so . . .
>
>Sounds like the trip was great. Too bad the gallbladder was messing
>with the enjoyment.
I could (try to) prove that it was all work :-) The sad part was not
being able to taste the Balgownie adn Lloyd wines to their fullest.
D'Arenburg I already knew both by reputation and some tastings. Lloyd,
I would have tried more but as I was driving . . .