Love the Barossa!

It was Good Friday and many of the Barossa Wineries were closed so fewer wine tours. When the concierge at the Intercontinental tried to book me on a tour, they were all fully booked. My only option was to rent a car and drive myself, not ideal as the police were heightening their search for drink drivers (instead of "drunk drivers" Australians call them "drink drivers" - odd, huh?).

I stumbled on the first winery - Villa Tinto - by that I mean it was the first winery that was open that I drove by. And I was in luck! Albert the wine maker was there and poured my series of red wine tastings and even took a FlipVideo for me! They had a "ship anywhere in Australia for free" special so I purchased 6 bottles. My favorite was the 2006 Cabernet Shiraz and I also enjoyed "Albert's Block Shiraz" too.



Since there were only 14 wineries open, it was pretty easy to decide which to goto next. The nearest one was called Moorooroo Winery and I love the name as it reminds me of my brother's name Tomu (we would always tell people it's pronounced "toe" as in your big toe and "moo" as in a cow) and my cousin Ryuichi (who we all just call "Ryu" as in kangaroo) - get it? Moo-ryu-ryu :)

In actuality, Moorooroo is an aboriginal word that means the coming together of two rivers. The Jacob Creek (river?) and another which I've forgotten.

And as it turned out, Moorrooroo is now one of my favorite wineries in the Barossa! They had 9 wines to taste (it's odd, at this winery and the one I went to on Easter Monday, neither had a dump bucket which means you're intended to drink the full tasting) and there was everything from a viognier to flavorful reds to sticky dessert wines.

One of the varietals that was both at Moorooroo and the winery I went to on Easter Monday - Sparkling Shiraz - it was wonderful! It's champagne made out of shiraz red grapes! It reminded me of the raspberry sparkling wine that Boony Doon in Santa Cruze used to make!

Before you even reach the cellar door (interestingly, instead of following the sign to the "wine tasting" you look for the "celler door" sign), I walked through a fragrant rose garden.



Then when I reached the "cellar door" I immediately felt like I'd stepped into a Jane Austin movie. It was such a romantic setting, beautiful trees with wrought iron candleabras hanging from majestic gum trees, a tree-line creek and in the wine tasting room was a French-inspired lounge area decorated in Louis XIV style.



I absolutely LOVED the wine! I had the Zebra Vionier 2005 with my degustation lunch which was light and fruity and the Anna Clara Rose 2005. I compared both the Lotties Shiraz 2004 (very smooth and velvety) and the 2005 which has a lot of potential (Tomu when you receive these please do compare them both, I believe you'll agree that the 2004 is amazing). The Samuel Nitschke Cabernet 2005 had great fruit and surprisingly had little tanins and was so well rounded and balanced I felt it was more like a pinot noir. Then of course there was the Silentium Sparkling Shiraz 2006which is made with the same shiraz grape but using a different process and what's different is that they top it off with liquor of shiraz grapes (Silentium means "tranquility").



Ellen, you're going to totally LOVE the Earth Song Muscato which is apple-y, crispy and has a flirty spritz to it. When I tasted it, I immediately thought of you! You'll probably even want to save the bottle - it fits your living room and the wall decorations you just purchased.

And then there was the Late Harvest Semillon 2005 or the "sticky" dessert wine. All of these wines are only available in Australia although they hope to soon have it sold online. It is also served at Bilson's and Aria in Sydney which are two very, very nice restaurants - Mom and Papa we had dinner at Aria the night we saw the opera at the Sydney Opera House, remember?

After the wine tasting, I enjoyed a degustation lunch while I decided what wines I'd send to my brother and his family for his belated birthday last month.