SURFING

Last weekend was easter weekend.  As we were close to finishing harvest all the casuals had 4 days off.

strange beauty in clear cuts

Friday went for a hike with housemate Alyssa, some some sweet wildlife (kangaroos) and of course lots of gum trees. Also saw a clear cut on the hike. Apparently Australia needs wood products as well. It was interesting how high up the clear cut was and how much it is hidden from either side of the valley. I don't know if they have replanting policies like they do in washington (can't imagine they do) but it would be nice to see. We were walking along the trail and got pretty up close and personal with a wild Roo. kinda startled us both but we were maybe 10 yards from him. Roo's are real cute, tasty, but can also hurt and even kill you, especially the big males. They will balance up on their tails and literally kick the shit out of you with those rather powerful legs. At this point I had yet to eat roo, so he really had no vendetta against me, and after a brief staring contest (I won) and some pictures, we kept along our trail and he bounded off behind us. Most likely to tell his other roo buddies that we were cool.
Saturday consisted of two things. thing one, dealing with a flat battery in Jackies car, 2nd. wine tasting throughout the Barossa with Jacki. Im starting to put together a case of wine to ship home (not cheap). I'm putting together a case of some of my favorite wines. Focusing on Barossa Shiraz, and a few other blends. more on that soon. its an ongoing thing.

For sunday and monday Alyssa Matt and I went down to the wine regions south of adelaide. Those being Mclarenvale and Langhorn Creek.  Drove down, tasted the wines. Its nice to taste wine from a different region in that region. As a whole we liked the wines. More tannic than those in the Barossa and with an ocean view.  The Mataro's were by far their best wines in our opinion with Oliver Taranga being our favorite.  Post wine tasting we hit up a local brewery called Goodesons. It seems that all the brewers we meet were at one time brewers for a large facility, and most likely after tasting "real" beer many of them have been starting up their own small operations. And thankfully they did, because matt and I get to taste the reward of their labor. We also find that most of the brewers we meet we end up talking to them about various things like their pumps/pipping/brewery setup/next product as apposed to the beer at hand. The day gets even better, post this we make our way our to the beach, Maslin beach (the first unclad beach in Australia). Not sure why we that beach was chosen, the nuddi part is up beach from the parking lot, but hey, it was a nice day and we wanted to swim. To my sweet sweet surprise there was a little local windswell rolling through, and lucky for me I had borrowed a surfboard from one of my winemakers. Surfing ensued. The waves were small, windy, had terrible shape, but I have surfed in Australia now. God I love surfing. (side note: the places you travel are made by the people you travel with. If I don't really have any travel plans with certain people i've decided that sitting on the beach and surfing in Byron Bay sounds like a damn good use of two weeks in june) Carrying one, that night we stayed at a YHA hostel (nicest hostels) in the small beach town of port elliot. Port Elliot is famous for its bakery. I don't think i've elaborated on an Australian bakery yet. Very different than what we think of in the States. Bakery's here consist mainly on Meat/gravy/veggies/salt/and such all contained within pastry. Its their version of fast food, and bakery's are serious business here. Matt spent close to 20 dollars on I think 5 different pastry variations. Matt likes to eat. I had what I akin to a meatball sandwich for breakfast. Thats another thing about Aussies, they seem to take everything that is acceptable and expected in the afternoon/evening, all food, drink, and social manner, and make it available in the morning in a socially acceptable way. thanks Australians for being awesome.
Monday followed with a trip up to Langhorn Creek, another wine growing region south of Adelaide. Interesting enough, Matt work at a winery down here in '10, so the intent of the trip was to visit that winery and hopefully get to taste some of the wine he helped make at a place called Bremerton. We did, and the wines were great.  Infact all the wines in the are were good, with Cabernet far and away being the best wines.
A few thoughts. One its nice to see the different areas really excelling in different wines. The Barossa reigns supreme with Shiraz, but Mclarenvale does Mataro (Movedre), Langhorn creek grows great Cabernet, Eden Valley Riesling, and the Adelaide hills grow pinot, I think.
Either way, a very pleasant weekend.
Tuesday, Matt and I got out beer stuff. yes, we are brewing beer all the way down here in Australia. our intent was to brew a Cascadian Dark Ale, nice dark beer full of flavor and full of hops, a concept that is just starting to be grasped down here. We got some chocolate malt to put into the beer, maybe a little more than we intended as it seems that the beer is taking on a slightly more mocha characteristic than was intended. Not at all a bad thing as the beer seems to developing lots of flavor and hops. Yay beer.
All and All it was a very successful weekend. look out for another blog in the next few days.