Grape Expectations - Fuel for thought
Max Crus
Sorby Adams Eden Valley The GT Gewurztraminer 2007 [©Max Crus]
Travelling down one of Australia’s busiest highways recently, something seemed amiss.
Wind in my hair, sun on my back, it was one of those days when I didn’t even feel like speeding, but something was wrong and it started to eat at my pleasure trip.
Then it struck me - there was no other traffic.
Sure it was a weekday. Sure there were (unfulfilled) reports of dreadful weather, but it wasn’t as if there was a special event on telly, say another moon landing, or Belinda Neal winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Then it became even more pleasurable with no-one to slow you down to 80kmh only to speed up to 120kmh at the overtaking lanes thus thwarting any such manoeuvre, only to return to 80kmh at lane’s end.
Or finding yourself ahead of a line of cars, just breaking the speed limit as is expected, when someone, previously happily keeping pace, decides to overtake, right where the overtaking lanes end. Nope, none of that either.
Or the B-doubles that pull out to overtake caravans as soon as the lanes permit, which just happens to coincide with a steep incline and thus they stay side by side until the lanes merge, both steadfastly (or steadslowly) unwilling to withdraw from the contest. None of them.
Or on the dual carriageway, two cars far ahead happily travelling in convoy, until you draw level, when the one behind, at that very moment, decides to overtake.
On this occasion, none of that, and then I realised why - petrol prices.
Geez, don’t tell anyone, but it’s almost worth the extra dough to have the roads so free, so let’s drink a toast, there is at least one good outcome of higher petrol prices.
Buy these instead of petrol :
Meerea Park 2006 Hell Hole Shiraz $55. Robert Parker must like this, it has gone from $25 to $55 in two vintages. But just because Parker likes it doesn’t mean it isn’t pretty flash. 9.1/10
Binbilla Special Steps Cabernet Sauvignon (Hilltops) 2006 $26. This was so subtle I’d almost finished the bottle before I realised how nice it was. Mind you it took three nights, during which time it just kept getting better. 8.6/10.
Flying Fish Cove Wildberry Estate Margaret River 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon $25. Wildberry is right, the fruit leaps out of the glass like a startled gazelle, but the tannins grab it by the short and surlies and drag it back in. 8.1/10.
Jamieson Estate 07 Louandra Sauvignon Blanc $15. After a hard afternoon laying pavers, all six of them, a man needs some refreshment, and this is just the stuff in a three bears sort of fashion. 8.4/10.
Eldredge Vineyards Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 $25. They’re up to the 04 by now but even that’s old for a wine these days. Nevertheless under screw you would hardly know, and the guests gushed after a good hour’s breathing as if it was positively archival. 8.8/10.
Sorby Adams Eden Valley The GT Gewurztraminer 2007 under $20? Ah, the sweet smell and spice of gewurz’. GT sounds like a Top Gear sort of wine, which is very apt, this is top gearwurz’. 8.8/10.
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Eldredge Vineyards are located in Clare, in the Polish Hill River wine region of the Clare Valley, in South Australia's Mount Lofty Ranges. Eldredge Vineyards is ... read more
Flying Fish CoveFlying Fish Cove winery is situated 25km north of the Margaret River town site, along Caves Road in the renowed Wilyabrup area, South West Coast, Western Australia. read more
Hansen HilltopsHansen Hilltops is located in Young in the Hilltops wine area of Capital Country ACT in Southern New South Wales. Currently closed. read more
Meerea ParkMeerea Park is a owned by Rhys and Garth Eather who handcraft their wines using cutting edge winemaking techniques and philosophy from some of the Hunter Valley's ... read more
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