Wine tasting experience

 April 12th

So the Grosvenor Hotel, not only did it not have heating in the rooms or any sort of view as mentioned yesterday, but breakfast was a complete fiasco. For $15 we could get a continental breakfast. Well, we headed down to the so called dining room, on a table stood a row of paper bags. Hmm...Strange thought we. Tea and coffee making facilities were evident as was a toaster but as to the food???? Would you believe the whole breakfast were in those bags. A carton of juice, sachet of cereal, a very small carton of milk, two slices of bread, one small pastry and a banana! The tea or coffee had to be served in those awful plastic cups and the bowl provided for the cereal was also made of that coated paper. Even the cutlery were made of recycled material! To say we were not impressed was un understatement! Anyway we had the wine tour to look forward to, a company called 'Bums on Seats' hmm a strange name for a wine tour but it got us to book it!

The driver was late, a good 15-minute which meant all those pick ups at other hotels delayed the tour even further. It all became a bit rushed and one of the attractions of the tour (for the Aussies) was to visit Maggie Beer farm shop (She was a well known chef from the TV, a bit like our Delia Smith) which had to go by the wayside much to the annoyance of some of our fellow passengers. But on the whole the day was good. The German Town Hahndorf had loads of shops to peruse and even a Christmas shop. The autumn colours of the leaves made a wonderful spectacle, something sadly lacking at my brother's place in Thornleigh.  I bought an Opal necklace at the Opal and gold centre. I nearly bought one at Coober Pedy but thought them all very expensive. The prices were reasonable here at Hahndorf so felt justified in making Ian open his wallet to buy one for me.

Off to the Barossa Valley for the first wine tasting session at Kersbrook Hill Wines and Ciders. During those awful bush fires back in 2019 this winery lost everything, started over and then came the floods,  they kept going only by the skin of their teeth. This photo on the wall spoke volumes.

Four red wines sampled, one most unpleasant because (a) it was served cold (no red wine should every be served cold!)and (b) it was a sparkling red wine and very sweet. Just one sip had me throwing the rest into the spittoon bucket. Most, including the whites, I enjoyed and even managed to pace myself by just having the one decent sip before getting rid of the dregs.

 

Two more wineries to go to, Kies Family Wines and  Châteaux Yeldara. The latter also gave us all a tour of the cellars. Amazing to see the huge barrels and the corridors of wine bottles. Unfortunately all the bottles were undrinkable due to every one being out of date!

At Kies Family Wines

Château Yeldara

Lord of the manor choosing his wine!

All in all we had a fabulous day made even better by some of the passengers antics after a having a bit too much to drink! The day ended at the Chocolate Factory....surely nothing gets better than that!

White chocolate

Dark chocolate waterfall

It was very late when we finally arrived back. Having had so much wine and chocolate we nearly decided not to go for a Pizza but the fact that Wednesday night was a two for one night, well it seemed a shame to pass that deal by.

And seen at Hahndorf