28 Jan : Barossa Valley

Jill captured this moment: the shirt and the power of the wine about to be "tasted"

We're here! Marc's Mecca! +Jill and I got up and looked at breakfast at hotel and decided to find something in town. We ended up at a German type cafe with meat pies and other stuff. It was ok (and the hunt would be on for something better).

We then drove over to Torbreck arriving 20-25 before our 10am appointment. Michael walked out to inform us that we were early and that license laws prevented a start before 10am. No worries - we expected to plan a little in the car anyway.
Once we did walk in, well hello! They have a list of 19 wines and they would have poured 18 of them for us. We ended up with 16 :-) but we were definitely pouring out a lot of each glass. Here is the conundrum. All the wines were good and we are very much in the Barossa version of Rhone heaven. We had a fantastic experience and as it turns out they are a rare winery that you can order online in the states. They actually partner with a winery in Sonoma (Quivera in Healdsburg!) of all places and then ship from there. Uh oh.

This resulted in a hilarious "caption contest" on Facebook since it's Marc and Harvalicious

We then went to Charles Melton for lunch and a tasting. I saw "Nine Popes" which drew us there. Apparently the winemaker mis-translated Chateauneuf du Pape but it stuck and he rolled with it and the wines are pretty good. Typical Aussie exchange happened here:

Customer: "I bet the Nine Popes is better than Chateauneuf du Pape."
Pourer: "Well it is very Australian."
Customer: "Hence my point. It is probably better."

He tasted it and truly believed it is better than any CdP.

Sadly, I must say that there are several producers in CdP that are in fact better but Aussies can believe whatever they want. After this, we went to Rockford because several people told us to go there but honestly we were not that impressed in the end. They did have the best Sparkling Shiraz we have had yet, but nothing we would bother ordering or carrying in luggage.

This leaves us with Seppeltsfield who specializes in fortified wines. We got the full experience here. They have a plethora of stuff to taste including 100 year cask/oak aged vintage ports from every year continuously since the late 1800's. They just released the 1913 vintage. Due to evaporation, this stuff is syrupy goodness. We tried a bunch of other stuff first and then took a great 45 minute tour of the property with a good history lesson before the 100 year old taste. We ended up liking the Tokays best (out of Tawny, Muscat, Takay) but they make them all. In addition, I liked the 1991 Para Tawny 21 yr old because it was sweet while Jill liked the 1989 Para Tawny 21 yr old because it wasn't as sweet and very drinkable.

Marc literally licking the glass of 100-year old port. It was yummy.

To end a rather long day, we went to a restaurant called Appellation. This is funny since they don't use that word here. They have zones, sub-zones, regions, sub-regions instead. The food was great and worthwhile. We got another Hobbs wine from Artisans that wasn't open yesterday. Overall, a great start with some insane Barossa wine. We will be working out constantly this week.

Sunset over the Barossa from dinner at Appellation at The Louise