Barossa Part II - Sorby Adams

Refreshed and revitalised, our kid and me woke to the challenge of a new day and some wine tasting.

Our day was made possible by the kindly attentions of Fireman Bob, father to a neighbour of my brother's in Hong Kong. Small world etc. Bob is a long time Barossa resident and has probably helped out at more vintages than I've drunk bottles of red. He's a well connected chap, as we were to find out with our very pleasant personal introductions to the great and good of the Valley.

Sorby Adams was our first visit in the Barossa, and it was a new winery for me. Simon Adams is the owner and wine-maker here, using the experience of being the head man for some years at Yalumba to good effect. He's also brother to Tim Adams of the Clare valley.

Thanks to Fireman Bob, we got the chance to have a long chat with Simon about his Eden Valley vineyard and his aims. The set-up is a bit atypical as there is no cellar door as such, but a shop and cafe in Angaston. You might call it a boutique if you were that way inclined, and I would then call you a perfumed ponce. But, hey, you get the idea.

Broadly speaking, there are two ranges of wine, Jellicoe and Eden Valley wines comes from Adam's vines in the Barossa Hills/Eden valley. Family wines are vinified from grapes from multiple sources across Australia and even NZ and Italy.


Whites

Jellicoe Reisling 2008. Kerosene nose with good acidic structure. Should cellar well.

Eden Valley Gewurztraminer 2008. Floral character, light and very pleasant.

Family Pinot Gris 2009. Interesting that this was presented after the Reisling and Gewurztraminer, as less intensity of flavour meant it suffered a bit by comparison. Pleasant enough, but lacked excitement.

Jellicoe Amelia 2010. A Reisling/Viognier blend with plenty of residual sugar making an interesting sweeter wine. Well matched acidity, good and would be very interesting to see how it ages.

Jellicoe Reisling 2010. Tasted directly after it's arrival in the shop, having been bottled a couple of weeks previously. Very different to the 2008, seeming much more European, with little kerosene character, and interesting mineral and peach flavours with a good length pepper finish. Excellent and would be fascinating to taste again after it has settled down post-bottling.

Family Semillon/Sauvignon 2009. This got missed out earlier in the tasting but we returned and enjoyed an approachable wine with open melon and stone fruit character.


Reds

Eden Valley Morticia Sparkling Shiraz NV. Light, with raspberry on the nose and cherries when tasting. Very easy to drink despite 14% ABV. I really do like good sparkling shiraz, but am often disappointed by the quality. This is good, and at $20/bottle is tremendous value.

Family Cabernet/Shiraz 2008. A combination of Margaret River and Barossa grapes. Plummy nose, strong tannin structure, and in need of more time.

Eden Valley Cabernet 2007. Fruit more evident here, but still had structure and the promise of further improvement.

The Cannon Shiraz/Viognier 2006. 5% viognier gives a lighter style as expected, with redcurrant and a hint of mushroomy flavour. Lacked the violets I often associate with Australian Shiraz/Viognier - not a bad thing.

The Thing Eden Valley Shiraz 2005. Deep red. Big blackcurrant nose, and similar taste but not to the point of jamminess. Really strong acidic structure and a long finish. Needs more time, but promises a lot. Anyone coming to my house for dinner, bring a bottle of this.


All in all, a very pleasant morning spent in the company of Simon and the Adams Family staff. Thanks to them all. And if you can't spot the theme, there's really no hope for you.

Barossa Valley, part I

I recently had the good fortune to spend some time in Australia, enjoying a spot of cricket as England enjoyed a spectacular resultagainst the old enemy. Marvellous.

I managed to spend a couple of days in South Australia's Barossa Valley, a place I'd visited before, and was glad to return to. I was accompanied by my brother Anthony, who by some neighbourly connections in Hong Kong got us an introduction to a local resident, Fireman Bob. More on him later.

The trip started with me missing my original flight from Brisbane due to a time zone vs mobile phone technological stuff-up. Thankfully I made it onto the next and little bruv didn't have to wait too long at Adelaide airport where we were due to meet.

I shared the flight with the Australian cricket squad, which felt slightly odd as they filed down the plane in the middle of cattle class, passing various senior members of the Barmy Army. I also managed to have a quick chat with Geoffrey Boycott at the luggage carousel, where he managed to answer my incisive question "Did you enjoy the Brisbane Test then?" for fully two minutes before moving onto other subjects centred mainly on himself.

Qantas then managed to make up for successfully sorting out my flight, by leaving my bag in Brisbane, eventually getting it to me after multiple broken promises more than 24 hours later. I suppose I should be grateful they got it to me at all.

We stayed for a couple of nights in Angaston, at the Barossa Brauhaus Hotel, which sounded a lot grander than it was. It was friendly, clean(ish) and cheap. No worries. Dinner was at the 40's cafe, where we were attracted by the claims for multiple award-winning pizza. In short, they didn't disappoint. I was also pleased to find a pretty reasonable winelist, so the food was accompanied by a Rockford Rod & Spur, which was incredibly good value at $38 (members mailing list price is $30).

Towards the end of dinner as we pushed large bits of uneaten pizza around the plate - they were too big for our weedy pom palates, we got chatting to the chef and proprietor, Damon. We chatted about the visit, the pizza and the wine list among other things. When we mentionedthe reason behind the trip was my 40th birthday, Damon took it upon himself to invite us to dinner for the next evening, with a dining/wine tasting club Secret Men's Business. Of course we accepted, and then wobbled off to our hotel for a good night's sleep.