Weon

Following our inability to track down the guy that runs mountain biking trips into the forest surrounding Margaret River, we all book a place on a tour of the local Vineyards. As it turned out this was a blessing because when we awaoke in the morning we were greeted by rain. We settle down to munch on some breakfast whilst watching Smallville on the laptop! We have a leisurely start to the day, meeting the tour bus at 11:15. Our driver and guide (whose name escapes me) takes us to our first port of call, a barbie by the Margaret River itself. There is a lot to be said for having steak and sausages at 11:30 in the morning, along with learning how to appreciate wine. What I particularly liked was that he told us that it doesn't matter what other people say about wine, it is all down to you and your personal taste - slightly different from the stuffy, wine appreciation society I was expecting!

Full to the gills with meat we head to the Xanadu vineyard where we sample about nine different wines. Our taste guide is a young lady who is about to start at the Wine University. Yep, the Wine University - because Wine is now the main industry in the region they have opened somewhere that people can go to learn all they need to help the industry grow and improve. So much more sensible than getting a degree in English and then not knowing what to do with it! We make the obligatory purchase and move on to the Red Gate vineyard, a much smaller (boutique) setup but with much better wines. The highlight is the incredibly sweet red wine that you serve chilled with a curry - yum!

We take a small detour to Surfer's Point to see where the World Champs are held but unfortunately the weather is shocking so we don't see any action! At this point, our guide also passes round a folder of paintings a poems he has done since living in Margaret River and while not masterpieces they were really rather good - particularly touching was a poem written about his father.

By now we are all feeling a little intoxicated so we make a pitstop at a venison farm for some free samples - mm, venison chorizo! We buy some rissoles for the BBQ that night but resist buying sausages called knackers or dried deer genitalia. Yep, they sell the meat and two veg for about 20 bucks (sorry) as it is very popular in Chinese medicine! From here we head for the Margaret River Chocolate company, purveyors of very fine chocolate. Great big bowls of free samples were on the counter as we went in and they went very well with the (sobering) coffee I bought. Next on the tour is the Woody Nook winery, a very small place that produces some really fantastic wines, including the irresistible Nooky Delight port. The tasting room is lined with thousands of business cards left there by visitors, to which mine was added - I'm still awaiting the phone call asking if I'll design a website for them…

More solids were needed at this point so we hit a small cheese makers for some quality Aussie cheddar. Final stop of that day (as voted for by me and Olly) was the Colonial Brewing Co where we sampled the five beers they made, the only one of which Anne liked was the killer 7.7% Dr Quick (typical!).

So that was it for the tour. As we head back to town, a contented silence settles on the bus, with the combined effects of good food and wine setting in. That night we feast on venison and beer, chilling out before the long, long drive we faced the next day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 am and is filed under Friends/Family, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.