I got to pet a kangaroo.

Wed Jan 18^th:

the beautiful barossa valley

i'll post more pictures to a facebook album when i have enough pictures worth posting. 

best wine tasting ever 

            Yesterday, I got to pet a kangaroo.  I know, take a moment to register how awesome that is. I was wine tasting and Whistler wines, and they had an enclosure with 8 hand-raised kangaroos and you could go and hang out with.  On a hot day like it was, they just kicked it in the shade not giving a “you know what”, so I went up and pet one.  Apparently that’s one of the attractions to this cellar door, aside from the nice wine and very very laid back setting. Napa valley is my benchmark for comparison to the Barossa valley.  Same importance to the countries wine industry, most prestigious wine growing valley and home to some of the oldest and some of the best wines in all of Australia.  But the Barossa Valley is a complete opposite in feel. Napa valley sells the wine country state of mind as an image and material thing; Barossa Valley is the wine country state of mind. I like to think Napa valley was like this 40 years ago right before the famous 76’ tasting.  However that is an irrelevant piece of nostalgia, The Barossa Valley as a growing and wine-producing region is significantly older and more established than our Napa or Sonoma Valley. Their industry also did not suffer one of the worst legislative decisions in history, dreaded prohibition.  Napa valley and the surrounding area’s were always destined to be status symbol for those able to afford it. That same image driven arrogance does not really exist here. Tastings are free, not 15-25 dollars Stags leap district, bottle prices are more reasonable, the hospitality feels real not purchased, and the wine is damn good. Dad you would love he wine here, Mom, not so much. The Shiraz is still big and bold, but in a controlled and more refined way than I expected.  Basically this wine valley is awesome through and through. I’m sure I will enjoy my time here.

            I start work tomorrow, Thankfully, this country is expensive. The exchange rate is roughly 1:1, but that’s not what you can exchange the money for, and everything is just that much more expensive. Fifties are the new twenties in this country, work and the feeling of making money will bring my some relief, my US funds do not go as far here as I would have hoped. My bike was also essentially a deposit that I’ll get back in the end. Don’t worry mom, I’m being very good about my spending and keeping track of everything. I have a nice savings account set up here and a set amount I’m going to put into it every week.  Yay being a real adult and doing adult like things.  

            Aside from being able to make money, everyone I’ve talked to has said that St Halletts is going to be an awesome experience. I met one of my fellow interns at a tasting room who was going back to St Halletts after working his first harvest there like 5 years ago. It has some nice respect throughout the valley and the wines rank high.  What I’m looking to get out of this harvest is how winemaking works on a slightly larger scale, its by no means big (Jacobs creek refinery and Penfield’s with there like 14 presses are just down the road), but it will be big enough that some logistical changes will be different. Either way I’m looking forward to it.  I’ll post in a day or so after working.