Adelaide Hills

Jan 3
We began the day with a lovely walk through the parklands near Mark’s place taking a big arc around the Botanical gardens
(which were closed), along the banks of the Torrens and back past some of the monuments and plaques dedicated to outstanding South Australian citizens.

We met the others at 10am and spent a few hours shopping, spending our Christmas vouchers and snagging a few bargains along the way.

We then grabbed Liam and took a drive to the Adelaide Hills to introduce him to wine tasting. The “Hills” were very scenic, different again to the Barossa and Clare with acres of vines growing in neat rows along the hillsides. We went to Shaw & Smith first ( after tasting a fabulous Sav on NYE) but I was a bit nonplussed by the pretentious way they did their tastings: $14.50 pp for five tastings ( a total of 1 glass of wine) and a tiny selection of cheeses. We opted for one between the three of us, which was enough, and didn’t feel compelled to buy out of politeness considering the tasting cost and the highly priced cost of each wine. Chris reflected that my disappointment with this winery probably stemmed from the absence of the “chat” that both of us always enjoyed with the cellar staff over a few wines.,

We moved onto Nepanthe and were comforted to return to our regular mode of tasting, including a chat with a lovely young bloke. We had drunk some of their wines before but the tasting gave us an opportunity to sample more of their range including some pinot Gris and a fantastic Late Harvest dessert riesling which Liam took a fancy to. We moved onto the next winery, The Lane a busy winery/ restaurant and Bar but again were disappointed by the impersonal service and the ordinary quality of their highly priced wines.

In the evening we met up for dinner with the kids at Scoozies, a nice pizza parlour in Rundle Street.