A Barrossa Wine List....

Over the weekend we visited several wineries. All were lovely, beautiful places but all did slightly different wines. Here I shall endeavor to share what I discovered and then, if you like, you can see if you can discover it to by popping to your local wine shop ;)

I shall present the facts in order of my favourite! First = top prize for loveliness and a must try and get some in the U.K. factor!

1. Murray Street Vineyards - The Barrossa valley.

The wine tasting was great here. We tasted about 8 different wines and 2 fortifieds. (Not allowed to call it port as it's from Oz not port lol) The woman who gave the tasting was brilliant and provided us with a wine guide for each wine. She explained which grapes went into which wines and presented us with enough of a range that we could start to tell the difference between them! Proper 'spesh!

This vineyard is a small family owned one with a beautiful setting and the best tasting wines we had for the whole trip. See if you can find any in the U.K. I bought the "tawny" (port to you and me) it's 10 years old and delicious. The best port I have ever tasted! It's got a lovely toffee flavour in the after pallet, it's sweet and warm and perfect for a cold winters day with a book and a bar of chocolate. (Although I think Shiraz would be better with some Bournville) What out for their Shiraz/cinaut combination wine. It's lovely. The Cinaut grape softens the Shiraz so that it loses a little bit of the zing that some shirazs give you. It's really smooth and not chalky at all, a really nice drop! We also loved the sab cav. Very fruity. If you can get them taste them and let me know what you think on here. If not.. well you'll have to come visit or request some for your birthday ;)


2. Kirrihill Estates - Clare Valley

This was the first vineyard we went to and it was lovely. With our cellar door pass we got to sample some premium wines here. This was my second best favourite, but, when it comes to whites it's my first. I hate white wine, i find it dry and taste less but the whites here were delicious! Yummy. Thoroughly recommend them. In the U.K. this firm sells itself under the name of "Lizards of Oz" The person at the vineyard thought this was as ridiculous a name as you do! lol. Never mind i think you can also find odd kirrihill brands too.

We went for the 2004 Cab Sav. I renamed it the Christmas Pudding wine. It has a strong fruity flavour with a hint of plums and Christmas pudding hitting your tongue. it reminded me of Christmas so much I bought a bottle (not sure whether it'll last that long though - I'll just have to go back just before we leave!) It has a really smooth finish and a lovely red colour that not to dark and not too pale. (generally 2004 seems to have been the best year for Cab Savs from what I tasted- well for oz anyway - it was really wet spring and a really hot summer)
All the wines were lovely but the 2004 Cab Sav is the best one I tasted. :) V will have to let me know the names of the whites as I can't remember. I'll let you know or she can comment them on here if she likes ;)


3. WolfBlass - The Barrossa Valley

WolfBlass has a very grand, enormous vineyard which accepts coach loads of people. Again our pass meant that we could sample premium wines. We were nearing the end of our tour at this point and I was a little worse for wear. I had to drink Espresso to sober up before I could taste any more lol. I dunno! We sampled a few cab savs, merlots and Shira#s here and came away with another Cab Sav! lol. This one is not as good as the Kirrihill estates one but still has some of the same fruity qualities. Wolfblass does sell it's wines the u.k. so give the 2004, gold label Cab Sav a go! ;)

4. Annie's Lane - Clare Valley


The woman doing the tastings here was grumpy and didn't offer us the premium wine tastings we were entitles too, even though I hinted twice. :( Never mind. The wine wasn't all that special anyway. It's won lots of awards and the vineyard is huge but the wine seemed to be no where near as tasty as the others. It came across to me as a little thin and uninteresting. I reluctantly went for a Merlot here, 2005. Avoid this wine if you're looking for something interesting and delicious.

Overall I have discovered that there is much more to life than Hardy's and Jacobs Creek... Be adventurous!


Here's a little lesson on Rose :)