Just because it's fun to do doesn't mean it's fun to read about - 16 -21 November 2008

After our feast in Hong Kong we moved on to Australia, and specifically the wine country.

We spent some time in both the McLaren Vale and the Barossa region.

These were mostly lazy days.  We stayed in B&B's (The 3 divas in the McLaren Vale and the Langmeil Cottages in the Barossa).  Langmeil is actually where we stayed the first time we came to Australia, back in 2003.

We slept late, cooked dinner in our room, and enjoyed the food (and candy) that you can't get in Southeast Asia.  They have some funny ideas about marketing dog food in Australia:

We visited these wineries:

Barossa Valley Estates - Probably the nicest cellar door I've ever seen

d'Arenberg - home of the Dead Arm, first introduced to me by Steve Dugan, and probably our favorite wine

Henschke - some very good wines, but I was mostly fascinated by the vino lok on their high-end wines

Penfolds - very well known in the states - we did a tour and tasting here

How much is shipping?

Rockford - probably our favorite winery - the shiraz port is outstanding

Rolf Binder (formerly Veritas) - No I didn't make any jokes about NetBackup or Foundation Suite

Rosemount - very well known in the states

St. Hallet - a winery near Rockford, both their Faith and Old Block Shiraz are very nice

Tintara  - we enjoyed the Blewitt Springs Shiraz