Beginnings at Mollydooker

The days of aimless exploring and whimsical expeditions have finally come to a close. This Monday I started work at Mollydooker, and I've just come back from my third full day. It seems to be a really good place so far. There's a lot of good people making some really tasty wine. We actually got a chance yesterday to taste through the whole lineup of the wines yesterday, including The Velvet Glove, which was amazing. It's one of those wines that has recieved really high scores in all the magazines, having reached a 99 from Robert Parker and so far never scoring below 97, but I'm always afraid of wines with that much hype falling short of expectations. But I'm glad to be able to say that it was one of those rare things that actually deserves all the praise that it receives, as it had a remarkable combination of flavor, intensity, and finesse.

It's going to be an interesting vintage this year however, because McLaren Vale, where our winery and vineyards are located, has had more rain this season that anyone can remember seeing before. The harvesting of the grapes is being delayed by the weather, so right now all we can do is wait. The past couple of days have mostly been spent training and learning winery procedures, but when we've had opportunities to work, there just isn't much wine related work to do at this point. So what we've been doing is general cleaning and preparation for when things pick up, but we're all ready to start getting the grapes in.

Here's a shot from above some of our bigger tanks of the view from the winery:

And here's a picture of me in my high-visibility Mollydooker uniform. I gotta say, I think think highlighter is a pretty good color for me:

Last Day Before Work

Today we did a bit more exploring in McLaren Vale, incliuding some more wine tasting in a different section of the area. Obviously the focus of the wines is on Shiraz here. There's a lot going on with the other Rhone varieties and some of the Bordeaux varieties as well, so we've also seen a good amount of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier amongst others. Honestly though, it seems like people like to make a little of everything out here with their wines. At one of the wineries we went to today, d'Arenberg, we tasted 29 different wines! We really got to see how much variety there is in the production of the wines in this area, and it also helped lead me to bed for a post-lunch nap.

I'm starting work tomorrow, so I just wanted to make a quick post with some pictures to give you an idea of what things are like out here.

Here's a picture of our pizza oven in our backyard. We're still figuring out how to make the dough, so if anyone has any recipes they'd like to share, it would be much appreciated.

This is a shot of McLaren Vale as we were leaving a winery called Tapestry. That's my roommate Ben in the green shirt.

Here's another shot as we were leaving d'Arenberg:

And this is another of my roommates, Chris, doing some whole cluster sampling at d'Arenberg:

Off to McLaren Vale

So I'm now getting settled at the house I'm going to be living in for the next three months or so. It was sad to have to leave Sydney but I'm already having a great time out here in McLaren Vale. On my last day in Sydney, I had no idea of what to do when I woke up. I'd already seen the main tourist destinations, didn't really feel like going wine tasting in the Hunter Valley, and didn't know anyone else who wanted to go to the Blue Mountains, so I didn't have much of a plan. What I ended up doing was heading back to Manly Beach with Killian, a friend I'd made at the hostel. Manly ended up my favorite spot in Sydney. It's such a beautiful place and has a fun, relaxed vibe to it that makes it a great place to spend time on the beach and eat some tasty food. Killian and I went out to the beach and body surfed for a while before getting some fish and chips. After taking the ferry back to the main harbor and walking back through the botanical gardens, we joined up with a couple other people at the hostel and decided to put together another home cooked meal. I made some pork dumplings that we had as an appetizer and picked out the Shiraz that we drank, and the rest of the crew took care of the lamb, potatoes, and carrots that we had as the main course. It was a fun last night, but it made waking up the next morning at 4am a little tough.

I got into Adelaide around 8:30am and was picked up by Russell, the winery manager, from the airport. The two of us picked up Chris and Ben, two of the other interns from America that I'll be living with for the next couple of months. Russell gave us a little tour of the area before bringing us to our place, where we met up with our other roommate, Jeff. We totally lucked out with how well things turned out with our living situation. The house has a lot of space both inside and outside, where we have a huge backyard. In the back we have a basketball hoop, a spot to eat, a treehouse, and most importantly, a wood fire pizza oven. I think we're going to have a lot of fun here.

Once we put our things inside, we met up with a good portion on the Mollydooker crew at one of the local pubs. We got to know everybody over some food and a couple beers before switching to some of the wine that we're going to be making. It seems like I'm going to be working with some people that are a lot of fun and really know their stuff when it comes to wine.

I just got back from wine tasting with my new roommates. We went out today to check out some of the local wineries and get a feel for the town of McLaren Vale. Now it's almost time for dinner, so I gotta go get ready to start making some spaghetti.

-John

Taronga Zoo

So yesterday I actually followed through on my plan to go to the zoo. At one of the first exhibits, I met a girl from Canada named Victoria who was also traveling by herself, so we became each other's zoo buddy. We were both commenting on the irony of checking out these poisonous and enormous snakes when both of us hate snakes, and we ended up deciding to take the tour together. It was fun having company and someone to talk to, especially because it feels a bit strange making exclamations aloud about the animals when you're alone.

They had a little bit of everything at the park, from lions to gorillas to penguins to kangaroos. My personal favorites were the tigers, which we got to see feeding, and the seals. I had no idea seals were so smart. We watched a show where they had them doing all sorts of tricks and even making specific facial expressions on command.

We saw every exhibit at the zoo, and here are a few pictures of my favorites:

Love the colors on this guy:

He looked fun:

And the tiger, looking majestic:

Most people back at the hostel were a bit worn out from the night before, so we stayed in and relaxed last night. Some of my friends from Canada were grilling kangaroo meat, so I got to try some. I was impressed. It was pretty good stuff, somewhat like lamb, but maybe a but tougher. But at least now that's one more thing I can check off my list for this trip.

Day 2 in Sydney - Manly Beach

The life.

Today was a fun day. I checked into my hostel, the Blue Parrot, out in Pott's Point this morning and began the solo leg of my travels. I decided that I wanted to take a ferry ride of the harbor and see more of Sydney from the bay. The plan was to head to the zoo and see some of the native wildlife, but for some reason, while I was in line to get my ticket, I decided to head to Manly Beach instead.

The ferry ride was fantastic. I enjoyed walking around the streets of Sydney, but seeing the city from the water really allowed me to appreciate why the city is so unique. It seemed like everywhere throughout the harbor there were beautiful beaches surrounded by rock pools and trees. I could've stayed on the ferry all day and enjoyed the views and would've had a great time., but eventually I got off in Manly and walked to the beach. Manly Beach is one of the most well known beaches here so even though it was overcast, the beach was still packed.

Today was the first day I really got used to traveling alone. The independence is great, as it's fun to be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want without having to provide any reason to do so. It's great being able to change my itinerary in line for the ferry just because I felt like it. At the same time though, when the barrel-chested man covered in hair runs past you with a speedo on that says Manly across the back, it would be nice to have someone to laugh about it with. But I guess you can't have it both ways.

I had a great time at Manly though, the beach was beautiful, the water was nice, and it was a really relaxing place. I had some fish and chips, a few beers, and the above sundae and spent most of my day there just hanging out and enjoying the scenery. 

Once I got back to Sydney, I realized I left my map on the beach, so I was forced to navigate the streets of the city with only my instincts. Those of you who know me and my sense of direction know that this was likely to end up in disaster. Somehow, however, I managed to not get lost through downtown or the maze of the Royal Botanical Garden and made it back to my hostel without any problem. I probably just got lucky though haha.

So now I'm recovering from my night out with some friends from my hostel from Ireland and Canada. I'm thinking today I'll do the zoo, but maybe I'll change my mind again. I guess we'll see. 

The Trip Begins

So I made it. I had expected the flight to be excruciatingly long and painful, but the time actually went by surprisingly quickly. I was able to sleep for most of the flight, as the 11:00pm departure time and not having anyone sitting next to me allowed nap relatively comfortably and help pass the fourteen hours by. Since I've arrived in Sydney, Bill Bowtell has been a fantastic host, helping me figure out the city and the public transportation. With his help, I went down to the Central Business District of Sydney to see the downtown area and check out some of the well known spots of the city.

My initial impression of Sydney so far is that it really seems to be a melting pot of many different cultures. In some ways, the architecture reminds me of Boston, with brick buildings with a older feel to them alongside the water. But at the same time, certain buildings seem straight out of Miami with bright colors and futuristic lines. It's an interesting juxtaposition that gives the city an unique vibe.

There were a lot of street performers throughout the section of Sydney that I was in. The guy playing the drums was by far the best:

A shot of Martin Place from Pitt St:

Harbour Bridge:

The Opera House was definitely impressive in person, but surprisingly small once I got up close to it. My favorite part of seeing the building up close was finding out that the roofs were made of small, handmade tiles. Some serious time and effort went into that thing:

And I found the bottle we're drinking at my welcome back party: