11/03/2015
Quick breakkie at the
campground, then off to Barista Sista, a coffee shop that convinced
me to stay for a second round of coffee and a carrot cake. It's great
to finally find a good coffee shop and they even have WiFi where I
can do some blogging while enjoying a double dose of coffee.
A quick link that Lisa
sent me today that I'd like to share:
Apparently Perth and
Rottnest are now going crazy with Quokka selfies, self-portrait
photos taken with wild quokkas in them,
http://pulptastic.com/quokkas-selfie/
Attention, overly cute photos when you open the link.
What was on the cards
today? First off I drove to Angaston, a little town on the eastern
side of the Barossa and visited the
Yalumba winery. Yalumba are a
very old, still family owned wine producer that have been founded in
1849. It is a beautiful estate and the young lady at the counter was
heaps of fun. As I was driving, we shortened the list of wines to
try. I decided not to try their Rieslings, despite that they are very
well known and awarded for them. Instead after a surprisingly
delicious 2012 The Strapper GSM, I tried their seriously nice
Shirazes (2010 Paradox ($43), 2009 Steeple Vineyard ($70)) and one
Cab Sav Shiraz called The Signature ($50) and, due to good luck as
they had a bottle open, I got the amazing 2009 The Octavius Barossa
Old Vine Shiraz ($100). Great stuff!
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Yalumba - their historic main building, also displayed on the label of their 'Signature' wine |
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All the goodness - tasting order from left to right. Great stuff! |
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The founder, I like his variety of jobs and interests: Master brewer, gardener, gold miner, viticulturist and wine maker. There is still hope for me! ;-) |
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The tasting room - I like the barrels over the counter |
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The Octave - a 100 liter barrel (the one to the right) is used for their "The Octavius - Barossa Old Vine Shiraz" |
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Coming over from Perth, I just like some more historical buidlings |
Yalumba are producing
their own barrels in the cooperage – I just came in when one of
their staff finished a barrel. Smells really nice in there!
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Work from their own Cooperage |
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He ave the upper rim a good hammering! |
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Early stage in making a barrel |
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Raw oak for barrel making |
Next stop was at
JacobsCreek Visitor Center. They are a huge producer of wine and have a
very nice visitor center where they entertain probably quite a lot of
people. What stood out was that they have everything translated to
Chinese as well and have the French flag up – as they are owned by French Pernod Ricard.
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the huge Jacobs Creek Visitor Center |
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Tasting room in the front, restaurant in the background |
The displays are great,
but even their upper price range of wines were (comparably to all the
amazing wines that I tried over the last week) nothing special from
my taste buds. I skipped most of them but as I've never seen their
St. Hugo range, I tried their 2012 Barossa GSM and the 2012 Barossa
Shiraz. As they were one of the main sponsors of this years
Australian Open they released a reserve wine, the 2003 Shiraz
Cabernet ($65). Was by far not my favourite to be honest.
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They were sponsoring the Australian Open |
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The bottle for export to China - 'WAH' would not go down too well in the Austrian market I suppose, background: the older Orlando winery logo |
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I remember seeing them driving this vehicle earlier - when I was fueling up somewhere in the Barossa |
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The 'St Hugo' range - Reini would probably say: "Die san fuer'n Hugo" |
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Displaying the different grape varieties in the outdoor part of the information center |
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Clearly not tailored for the European consumers... |
After a snack and a walk
in their show vineyard, I took the scenic route through Torrens
Valley (crazy corners!) and drove to Adelaide. I've selected the
caravan park that is closest to the city, its mainly just outside the
parkland that surround the inner part of Adelaide.
I walked through the park
where part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival is on, passed the Zoo,
University of South Australia and followed the North Terrace to King
William Road. I came across Haiges, Adelaide famous chocolate shop
and enjoyed some live music and comedy in Rundle Mall before I walked
back to the caravan park.
Some random shots from my walk through Adelaide:
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SCNR |
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Torrens River with parks along side - in the center of Adelaide! |
Heard today that I'll get
a visitor from Perth for the weekend. How exciting!
Distance traveled today:
96km
12/03/2015
A quick 5km run in the
morning before breakfast – the caravan park is ideally located
along the Torrens river and there are nice cycling/running paths on
both sides of it, with bridges every now end then. I'm quite happy
with the time I ran today for the 5km, was sort of a time trial, but
still a lot slower than my record for this distance from one and a
half years ago.
After a healthy breakfast,
I got my my bike out and went for the first bike ride in South
Australia – following the river upstream towards the Hills. Very
nice scenery, but I struggled to find the correct path at times –
the signage is distinctly different and I had to turn around and take
another path quite often. Had a cappuccino at a deli, very close to
the caravan park after the 41 km ride.
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The mean machine - Specialized Roubaix Comp... lovely to ride! |
I'm discovering North
Adelaide in the afternoon – checking out the highest rated coffee
shops from Beanhunter and found a new favourite coffee shop that is
easy to walk to UR Caffe (unfortunately their WiFi didn't like me),
so I'm blogging from The Lion Hotel and enjoying a glass of
Skillogalee Clare Valley Riesling 2014. Very tasty!
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