I finally got around to taking up my Australian Traveller prize a few weeks back. Two nights accommodation at Lindenwarrah, Milawa, in the Victorian high country.
A great opportunity to see an area that I doubt I would have travelled to, or through, otherwise. Lindenwarrah sits smack bang in the middle of the Milawa gourmet region, and across the road from the expansive (and somewhat too commercial and impersonal) Brown Brothers cellar door.
Travel, food, and wine. A winning triumvirate for me!
Let's start in that business class lounge then, shall we?
This is where you hear the sound of the needle pulling backwards over the record, for the business class lounge is doing it's bit for R.S.A., and the bar does not open until midday. For normal people, this is quite… normal, but I am not normal. My abnormal fear of flying is serviced by a calming pre-flight drink. What you see above is a pretty sunrise and a panicked chick.
After landing, without just dropping out of the sky, in Melbourne, we got a hire car and headed northish for about three hours.
We feasted on delicious, generous, lunch serves, at Plunkett Fowles, washed down with the best labeled wine I've ever heard – 'Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch'. I had the Wild Ferment Chardonnay, and it was yummy with my blue cheese!
A little-known fact about me is my childhood intrigue with Ned Kelly. I thought he was pretty cool and read about him extensively while in primary school (well, extensively for someone who didn't love reading). I still remember now that he was hanged on November 11 and Sir Henry Parkes signed off on his death, so imagine my excitement when I saw a sign for Glenrowan, scene of his infamous last stand!
I love a 'big', so here I am with the big Ned…
And I think I worked out where the name 'Stringybark Creek' came from…
Pretty blossoms and blue skies
made way for the storm clouds and drizzle that were the feature of the next two days
Great fireside weather!
The food and wine at Lindenwarrah were great, and the service was friendly and attentive. There were plenty of books, magazines, and games in the lounge, by the fire, well-suited to relaxing after a hard day visiting wineries and gourmet food providores.
He won. Wish he'd play Scrabble with me.
He watches the fire, instead.
Next day I got all fired up with the idea of riding a pushy to wineries. The land around Lindenwarrah is flat, and the cars are few, but the weather, and the bike seat were not on my side.
We gave it a whirl for a couple of hours
but ended up picnicking in the car
with the yummiest cheeses, wild olives, and bread
while watching the river grow in size
before the clouds parted a little, for this
Behind the cheese factory I found another version of the metal-leaf-against-dark-sky sculpture I loved so much in the Hunter, earlier this year.
More blossoms
and some more sunshine
Bovine beauty…
It was while bike riding that we heard of the Prosecco Road – a wine trail that visits the (you guessed it) local Prosecco makers. Prosecco is the Italian version of champagne/sparkling wine, 'Secco' meaning dry. Curiously, as a lover of dry wine, I find it hard to love prosecco, generally finding them fruity and sweeter than I prefer, especially in a sparkling. But, martyr I am, I owed it to the readers to go and try some anyway.
There is a suggested itinerary, available in brochures and online, that sounds pretty lovely, and includes helicopter flights, a game of bocce, and a prosecco masterclass, but I will have to leave that itinerary until I am reincarnated as a classier and more organised person – but if you live in Melbourne and want to Wow that gal…. In this life, opting for the "Which ones can we visit as we drive out tomorrow, as it is a Sunday, and we are leaving early to get to the snow" tour.
We began, and were introduced to Victorian prosecco, at Christmont where the woman was very friendly and helpful. She told us about the area, how the climate of the King Valley closely resembles that of Northern Italy, and many grapes grown in the region reflect that.
Hence the Prosecco Road – currently, six vineyards producing prosecco. Of the six, we made it to Christmont, the mass-market of Brown Brothers as mentioned earlier, Pizzini, Sam Miranda, and Dal Zotto.
The scourge of the tourist (booze) bus at a cellar door. It must be a double edged sword for the wineries. On the one hand, they are regularly delivered a busload of eager, half-pissed punters, wallets at the ready, while on the other hand, that same busload of revellers make the average wine taster want to move very quickly to the next, quieter, cellar door if timing is poor. I like to chat about what I'm tasting, it's how I learn, and how I enjoy. It's just a shame that I miss out where there is a bus.
So there were two standouts on the Prosecco Road for me, in the end. Dal Zotto was one. Like many of the vineyards in King Valley, Otto Dal Zotto's land started out as a tobacco farm. As demand for tobacco products decreased, some local farmers began to plant grapes. Otto begun with Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vines, but in 1994 expanded to include Italian varietals such as Barbera, Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Arneis, and Prosecco – releasing his first bottle of L'Immigrante Prosecco in 2004. I tasted the 2010, and it was bright and summery – not too sweet – with a lovely citrus zest.
I also enjoyed our stop at Pizzini, though their Prosecco wasn't ready yet. I loved the Whitefields Pinot Grigio, all creamy, tart and honey flavour, as well as the Arneis, and the 2010 Verduzzo was smooth.
Not part of the prosecco road, and not even on the main map, we stumbled across Avalon Vineyard.
Or course, we had to check it out.
I loved the 2009 Spanish Imposition, named after the Spanish Albarino vines were identified, instead, as the French, Savagnin (which appears to be still grown in Albarino, Spain).
And that's the thing I noticed most. The smaller the vineyard, the less pomp and ceremony at the cellar door, the more interesting the wine. I like to drink something with flavour and character, not blandness, so I really enjoyed visiting all the little establishments.
Winning a prize was a great excuse to have a look at the King Valley area, but the food and wine were good enough to lure me back if I happened to be driving in Victoria again.
From there, we headed to the mountain….
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