2 Feb: Adelaide (SA).

Semaphore Beach, Semaphore, SA

We got to start off the day Skyping with our nephew, niece and +Marc's parents to wish Mason a Happy Birthday. He opened the present we got for him and we got to catch up on what is going on in Brea, CA. Unfortunately Tanya was at work so we couldn't chat with her. Nice way to start the day. 

We had a couple of quick errands to take care of before we set off for the day, which was going to include a fair amount of walking by the time the day was done. We needed a good walk after all of the craziness of the past 2.5 weeks, which didn't really include much exercise over that period of time.

Marc wanted to head out to Semaphore Beach and of course I should have known the significance of the word 'semaphore' being married to a software engineer and all, but I didn't. If you don't know, Google it. It was more of a locals beach, as opposed to one of the more touristy beaches like Glenelg, and we got to walk around the pier, have some brekkie, etc. Good stuff.

1969 and 1971 vintages of Penfolds Grange in this case

Then it was back to the apartment to drop off the car so we could walk to the Penfolds Magill Estate just outside of Adelaide. It didn't look too bad - about 5 miles each way, but I didn't plan for a pretty steady uphill with the temperatures increasing. We got to Penfolds about 15 minutes late (argh!) but were still able to join the tour and tasting. The tour was very interesting as this estate (as opposed to the facility in Barossa where we were at on Wednesday) was where Grange and Penfolds all began.

No one will notice if a barrel of Grange is missing, right?

We saw many of the underground tunnels where wines are still stored today plus some of the keepsakes acquired over the years from producing Grange and other well-regarded BINs from Penfolds. Finally we got to sample ground up oak from American vs. French barrels to understand the differences in texture. 

Marc ready to try some wine!

We had a tasting where we tasted very similar wines to the ones we tasted on Wednesday, but different vintages. It was interesting for Marc and I to compare and contrast which ones we liked more on Wednesday vs. Saturday (today). Age and the type of vintage make a big difference. Also even though the Magill Estate is very historical in nature, wine is produced there including the very excellent Magill Estate Shiraz. Some Grange grapes are also sourced from the Magill Estate. We also got to try some of their tawnys, which were very good. Another informative tour arranged by +Erik.

We walked back to town and the sun was shining, which felt good. We were able to finally see Adelaide in the sunshine and snapped some photos. It is a very well planned city and very bike friendly. Loads of parks as well. On the walk to/from Penfolds, we were able to walk through a couple of neighborhoods that one could call "high rent districts", which had some really nice homes. 

Outside of the Magill Estate at Penfolds

At 6:30pm on a Saturday, we were pretty surprised at how quiet Adelaide was except for Gouger Street and a couple of other streets where restaurants and bars are located. We couldn't get into Marc's choice for dinner, Gauchos (as a tribute to his UCSB roots), so we went to another well regarded place, Wah Hing. The server recommended one of the house specialties - Sang Chow Bow, which were basically lettuce cups with chicken, garlic, ginger and a boatload of other goodies. 

Enjoyed dinner and headed back to pack up as we have an early start on Sunday (4:35am wake up call) for our flight to Tazzie. Good times in Adelaide and surrounding area though.