We headed for the wineries around the small settlement of Murrumbateman. Our first stop was at Yass Valley Wines which is quite a small affair. Our tasting was given by the new winemaker who had learnt his trade mainly in Sicily, Italy. He was looking forward to making his first wine with their Barbera grapes. We liked their Merlot and Riesling wines.
The second stop was at Clonakilla wines where the owner or winemaker gave us the tasting. He was certainly very knowledgeable and used to judging wines at competitions throughout the world. The distinctive label based on a famous celtic illustrated bible seemed familiar to us. They had three of their wines featured in Australia's top 100 by James Halliday. They made an excellent Sauvignon Blanc that rivalled the best from New Zealand and a Viognier in a fresh and crisp style which we don't get in the Languedoc. Their oaked Viognier was a powerful wine but we would have preferred it without the use of oak. They were also making red wines by adding Viognier (white) to Syrah (Shiraz). We had seen a poor example of this odd combination before in Australia and asked what it was all about. Côte-rôtie, the famous French wine from the Rhone valley was the answer. We were impressed with this winemakers results and bought quite an expensive bottle for Christmas.
By now it was time to seek some lunch and we headed for Flint's at Shaw vineyard. The food was very good and he had a leisurely lunch overlooking the vines. After a tasting of the Shaw wines we were suffering from palate fatigue and returned to Canberra.
Back at Ann's we went for an arduous walk with the dogs. Arduous for them since they did so much pulling at their leads, on a previous walk Ziggy managed to break her wide nylon belting collar requiring an ingenious Scout knot to create a replacement collar from her lead.
It was soon time for aperos and here we all are in Ann's garden with Esther and the dogs.
Pat and John on tour