Wino Tour

Hello again from the University of New South Wales, whose mascot is not a whale because that would be too easy. It is now week 4, and I have my first assignment in my data structures and algorithms class. For anyone interested, I have to distinguish between 4 different random sorting algorithms by inputting different data arrays and timing the results. If anyone has any ridiculously clever ideas about it, email me. I will be sure to credit you.

But that isn’t why you are here. As you may or may not be aware, my brother and I joined our college last Sunday on a tour of the Hunter Valley, AKA Wine Country. Through strength of will I managed to force myself to go against my nature and actually bring my camera. Shocking, I know. I even left the protective Styrofoam it came packaged in back in my room.

Anyway, the day started as we all filed on the bus the college hired for the trip. It was a nice bus, comfortable. We had a television with which we watched Old School on the way there and some other movie on the way back. Apparently it is against the law in Australia to not wear a seatbelt on one of these, as every time I have got on one here the driver tells us. (Side note: that picture was actually taken at the end of the night. It is winter here, but it isn’t that dark at 8) This brought us to our first stop at about 10:30:

If you have heard of McGuigan, get used to it. We really only managed to hit up the big boys, as we were too large a group for the smaller places. I have been told I need to go back on my own to try some of them, and I probably will if the opportunity arises.

When we got there they led us into the back past a big line of barrels (which I suspect were there for show) to a long bar furnished with tiny glasses, breadsticks, and a vase I suspect was intended for spitting (give us a break, we are poor college kids… why else do you think we are going on a wine tour?).
At each location I also made sure to try and keep notes in my pocket notepad on which wines we tried and what I thought of them. McGuigan Cellars was my first time trying a lot of the different wines we would be tasting throughout the tour, so I don’t how much weight I would put into my opinion. The wines here were the B/L Chardonnay, Night Harvest SSB, V/S Gewurztraminer (my favorite and of course the most expensive of thy first taste of dessert wine, with a P/R Botrytis Semillon. We then capped it off with an item he wasn’t evene whites), B/L Red Blend, Genus 4 Shiraz (Eric’s favorite here I think), and a Noon Harvest Merlot. I also got m supposed to offer for tasting, the Tawny Port.

Here is Eric drinking what I believe to be the Tawny Port (and three other Seppos in the background-from the left Jamie, Sean, and Sidharth). If I learned nothing else on this tour I learned this:

I LOVE TAWNY PORT.

Tawny Port is a fortified wine. But it is so much more than that. It is the reason for life itself. This is the pinnacle of all human achievement. The most important invention of all time is not the wheel, not fire, and not the digital watch. It is Tawny Port. I just thought I would get that out of the way. Next on our tour:

God I need a haircut. Anyway, Lindemans. We got here around 11:30 and they tucked us into a backroom with two rows of benches and what I believe was a wine making museum.

It was a nice looking place with a few interesting looking pieces, but we weren’t here to learn about the winery’s history, that’s what Wikipedia is for (check it yourself, I have limited internet access). We were here to drink wine.

See that one on the end in the box? That is the Port. It is DELICIOUS if I have not already stressed that enough. At Lindemans they gave us a full size glass and a nice gent (that bag of flesh standing by the bottles, a pleasant fellow whose name has escaped me) came around and alternately offered us about a thimbleful of wine and crackers with a nice sharp cheese. Yes dad, I ate good cheese, and I actually liked it. Hopefully you have the aspirin nearby to help abate the inevitable heart attack. Here we received the Reserve Sparkling Wine, Hunter Valley Reserve Fidelio, Semillon, the Sparkling Red, Reserve Cabernet Merlot (both of the Twin’s favorite of the normal wines here), a Shiraz, and of course the Aged Tawny.

Sparkling Red is apparently an Australian thing. It is exactly how it sounds, a sparkling red wine. It is served cold, and is apparently associated with Christmas. I found it to be decent, and Eric didn’t much care for it (but he isn’t a fan of sparkling wines).

At the Lindeman store, aside from the wine and the name reminding Eric to tell me to watch Heroes (which I finally did and loved) they also featured tasting for fudge and olive oil.

If Eric’s giant noggin were not in the way, you could see the large crowd begging for pieces of fudge. They were delicious, but when is fudge not? The olive oils were not quite as popular, so I was able to get a better picture of them.

Of course, their relative unpopularity probably had more to do with the fact the bread you used to dip in them ran out after about 20 seconds, as evidenced by the bowl of crumbs in the center. The oils were good too, and if I actually lived here I would have probably picked up a bottle of the lime. Next we had lunch. It was a highly standard affair involving a cheese pizza, a subway, and maybe a high speed chase through a shopping mall. Nothing really important. Time to move to our next stop at 2 at:

I know it says it is a wine school, but this winery was by far my least favorite of the bunch. Sure, we got a tour that involved a room full of giant metal fermenting tanks, a room with barrels full of aging wine, and a barren (it is winter) row of vines. But the wine itself was sparing and mediocre. We got only four types: the Oakey Creek Semillon, Gorge Wooded Chardonnay, Hele-Barry Shiraz, and the Broke Fordwich Cabernet Sauvigon. They were all decent, but none were spectacular. However, I don’t for a second believe the winery was the reason we came here.

Say hello to the beer paddle from the adjoining Blue Tongue Brewery. From the right to the left we have Alcoholic Ginger Beer, Premium Lager, Nobby’s Premium Light, Traditional Pilsener, Premium Draught, and Premium Black Ale. They are all delicious. To top it off, when you returned the paddle, you got a free middy of whichever you liked best.

If you can’t tell already by the color, Eric and I both picked the Black Ale. This was my first one, and I must say it is definitely my beer. I need to try Guinness at some point. From here we were herded back onto the bus for one last stop at:

Most everyone really liked the Wyndham Estate. I don’t think anyone could speak with certainty about whether or not we actually liked any of the wines we tried there afterward, let alone try and give you a reason why, but we liked the place. They didn’t serve you a half a mouthful of wine each time here. They poured a whole glass. Not only that, but I at least didn’t really see any pallet cleansers to munch on, so by the end they all started mixing in my mouth. To top it all off, it was the end of the day, and anyone who said they were not a bit tipsy would be a bald faced liar. I have a list of the wines we drank, but I don’t think it is complete or a hundred percent accurate, so I wont include it here. I do remember trying a sparkling shiraz, but other than that (and the port of course… yum) they all have kind of mingled together in my mind.

The Wyndham Estate also featured these fellas. Well, maybe not featured, but they wandered by anyway. They were pretty cool.

Anyway, that is wine country. Join us next week when I make another update on a subject yet to be determined, but possibly Australian weather! Oh, and remember, if you need to contact me, please email me at my UNSW email address. Thanks!