Travelling Post 19 - "if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot"

For the uneducated in film amongst my readers, the above quote comes from the film Sideways, about an engaged man and his friend going on a week of wine tasting before his wedding. This expletive containing quote is the appropriate title for my post for two reasons and none of them being that I nor my friends are engaged but firstly because a week ago yesterday (Monday 15th Jan) I went on a wine tasting day in the Hunter Valley (where Lindeman's comes from) and secondly, whilst there I tasted Merlot and it is a bit crap.

The day started like any other getting up at 6am to be at the coach pick up point for 7am. Eleanor, Stacey, Sam K and I all went on the tour entitled 'Wild Wine Tour' - wild not because of the fun we'd be having on the coach after the wine tour (lots of sleep actually) but because our first port of call was the Australian Reptile Park. After taking a photo under the giant lizard entrance we wandered into the park where we went straight to the Koala Bear enclosure to stroke the marsupial and have our pictures taken. This was totally unexpected and a great start to the day, normally it is $15 or so to have you picture taken with a Koala in a zoo, but this was included in the very reasonable $85 cost of the tour. Next up we wandered to the picnic area for tea and biscuits where Kangaroos and Emus wandered about freely. The guide gave us puffed wheat to feed the Kangaroos, again an unexpected surprise, and an hour to look around. The rest of the Park was interesting, although our visit felt a little rushed and, ironically for a reptile park it was the marsupials which I found to be the most entertaining and memorable part of the park.






























After a look around the park it was off to Hunter Valley. We arrived at our first of three wineries, Ivanhoe Wines, at midday. Then we went to lunch, followed by a tour of Drayton Family Wines then a tasting session at the end and finally a third tasting session at Tulloch Wines. Throughout the day I tasted 11 white wines, 3 Roses, 6 reds, 3 ports and one chocolate liquor. At least I think that was what we tasted, I forgot to take notes at the last winery so have had to go off memory. My favourite wine would have to be either the Gewurztraminer from Ivanhoe or the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines. Both were sweet desert wines, The Gewurztraminer would probably have been a bit sickly after a few glasses, but i will never know I ended up not buying anything from Ivanhoe as it was the first winery we visited, I did though buy the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines and will let you all know how easily it went down when I drink it. Ivanhoe definitely had the best Rose, and Tulloch probably had the least favourite of all the wines I tasted, the Merlot - I think I prefer port to Merlot. Ivanhoe also had the best tasting session as we were sat outside on the patio with a beautiful view of the valley.
















Above I look for clarity and consistency, below I taste it.















The whole day was fantastic, I really enjoyed myself and am thinking of going to the Barbarossa Valley on another Wine Tasting tour when I am in Melbourne or Adelaide. It is at Barbarossa where they produce Jacob's Creek.

The following Wednesday Ed and I visited the Australian Natural History Museum. The idea was to visit the Eaten Alive exhibit, about predators but that was actually for pre-teen children, even big kids would have difficulty enjoying it. We did have a look around the rest of the museum and was most impressed by the Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibit (done in conjunction with the BBC) and the skeleton exhibit where I met one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
















Yesterday I revisited the Powerhouse Museum during the day to look at the Great Wall of China Exhibit - which was impressively detailed and informative. In the evening Eleanor, Stacey and I went to watch Stranger than Fiction at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs Macquaries point. Expected a field, similar to an American Drive In Cinema, there was in fact a grand stand and surround sound. It was brilliant, what you would expect to be distractions, the lights of a plane high above, or the sound of a boat coming close to the screen before turning around and leaving us only added to the atmosphere, making it one of the best cinematic experiences of my life. The film was also one of the best I have seen in a long time, with a spot on cast, superb direction and a witty, original script it is well worth going to see, open air or not.




























































Above, the screen opens up with a great moonlight background.