Weeks 4 & 5

I've been slacking on my blog game, so I have a little bit of catching up to do on here from the past two weeks. When I last posted, I was just about to head to the Adelaide Cup for some horse racing. It's pretty awesome being in a place that gives you a state holiday because of a horse race, and we had a great time. The atmosphere was like that of the Kentucky Derby, where everyone was wearing their Race Day finest. The women were wearing their enormous hats and drinking sparkling wine while the men were looking sharp in their suits and ties. The race was one of those events where it was fun to watch the horses and make bets, but the best part was the people watching.

The races were entertaining, but my usual formula for betting wasn't working out. Usually, I like to take a look at how the horses look when they take their warm-up trot in front of the stands. Then, after picking a couple favorites, I pick one based on which one has the best name. For some reason though, my instinct didn't translate to Australia and I lost in all races I bet on. It hurt my pride a bit, but it wasn't enough to ruin my day. Here's a picture to show the track:

At the Adelaide Cup, I had decided that it was too hot to have a full beard. The week following the race was pretty slow at work, mostly filled with us helping out in the vineyard to take out as much Botrytis as possible, so I decided it was time to have some fun taking my beard off.

Here is the first style I went with. The most frequent comparison for the facial hair I heard for this one was Wolverine from X-Men. I kept this for one day:

Next, I trimmed up the mutton chops into more of a line going from the sideburns around to the moustache. It was more of a transitional stage and another one that I only kept for a day.

Next, I went with the Fu-Manchu. I enjoyed the Hulk Hogan comparisons I was getting with this one. In fact, I enjoyed them so much I kept this look for about a week:

This past weekend, I went out to the Barossa Valley with my roommates Ben and Chris and with another American we work with, Scott. Barossa is sometimes compared to Napa Valley in that it is the most prestigious wine region in the country, and there were some really nice wines there. One upshot of the rain that we've been getting this season is that the drive out there was beautiful with lots of rolling green hills and kangaroos bouncing about. I was driving otherwise I'd have some pictures on here for you.

The first place that we went was Henschke. It's one of the oldest and most-well known wineries in the area and home of Hill of Grace, a $550 per bottle Shiraz. We didn't get to taste the Hill of Grace, but what we did taste were really good quality. Their style was more towards an old-world, elegant with really well balanced wines and their Pinot Gris was the best white wine that I've had down here. Here's a picture of their cellar. The holes in the ground are actually underground tanks, a relatively unusual set-up that works really well for keeping cool and consistent temperatures for the wines within. I'm glad I don't have to get in their and clean them though. 

The next winery we checked out was Yalumba, a larger producer that made some pretty decent wine. It wasn't quite as exciting of a visit, but their Shiraz Viognier co-ferment was good. 

Next, was my personal favorite of the trip, Two Hands. We had a few connections at the winery and were able to get a tour through their facilities from their winemaker. They've had wines in the top 100 in Wine Spectator each of the last couple of years, so we were really lucky to get such good treatment. Here's a shot of Scott and Chris tasting some of their younger wines out of the barrel:

After the tour, we got to try their current releases in their cellar door with some bread, cheeses, and meat. We got to try all of their wines, all the way up to their high level, single vineyards wines. My favorite actually was one of their mid-range Syrahs though, Lily's Garden. I might have to buy a couple of bottles to take back.

After staying the night, we hit up four more wineries the next day. We went to Torbreck, Kaessler, Langmeil, and Jenke. Torbreck was the stand out of this day, with some great Shiraz, Mouvedre, and Grenaches. They actually had the most expensive wine I saw that weekend, with a $700 bottle of Shiraz. Again, no luck in getting to try that one. It must have tasted like liquid gold for that price, so I would've liked to try it.

The past week at work was similar to the week before, but things have been picking up since we're finally about to get in fruit. We've been told that the first grapes are finally coming in tomorrow, and I've actually shaved off my moustache in anticipation. Hopefully things pan out and we can have some action at work.

Week 3

We're halfway through a three day weekend here and tonight I'm taking it easy, so I thought I'd post an update while I'm relaxing.

The weather has still been a little odd and we got a bit more rain this week, so still no harvesting of grapes. We actually have been getting a good amount of time out in the vineyard to check for Botrytis (a fungus that can grow on the berries when there's been rain) and look at the overall maturity of the grapes. They're at the point that most wineries both in the states and in Australia would pick at, but Mollydooker gives them a longer period to develop, which is why the wines are such massive fruit bombs. Here's a shot of some of the Shiraz that we're growing on property:

Other than that, there's been a little bit of blending work and barrel maintenance, and a lot of general cleaning. I found out that when harvest picks up, it's likely I'm going to be stationed at the crush pad for most of the time. The crush pad is one of the better spots because you get to be the first ones to see and taste the fruit coming in and because there's plenty of work to keep you occupied, so I'm happy about being being placed there. Here's my roommate, Chris, and one of the full-timers, Chris Player, cleaning out one of the bins of the crusher:

Other than work, it's been more beaches, barbecues, and wine. Can't say I'm sick of yet. Yesterday we were out at Sellick's Beach and it was a perfect day with clear skies. We played some Aussie Rules Football, I learned how to play cricket (kind of), and went for a swim. One of my co-workers, Sam, lives right by Sellick's Beach, so everyone went back to his place for a party last night, hence why I'm taking it easy tonight. Here's a few shots from the beach:

Anyway, tomorrow is the Adelaide Cup, a big horse race that we're going to. It's actually a public holiday for the race, which I think is ridiculous but awesome. I'm planning on winning big at the races, so wish me luck.

Wheels!

After talking about doing it for a few weeks, we finally went out and got ourselves a car. We picked up a gem with 1996 Holden Commodore. Here's a visual of her:

Boss life.

She's got a little over 300,000 km on her, but she's got a lot of character and I think she's going to take good care of us during this vintage. It's nice having some freedom and being able to do some exploring outside our town now. 

In between going to the beach and spending time at the pub this weekend, I found my favorite winery I've been to yet on this trip. Ben and I went to Samuel's Gorge and had the best wines I've had so far in Australia (other than Mollydooker's of course). Their Shiraz was awesome but their Grenache was the star. If you ever see their wine in the states, pick it up. The winemaker, Justin, was a really interesting guy and their labels are great too. Here's their website: http://www.gorge.com.au/index.html

A couple people have been commenting on my facial hair, asking if I was growing a moustache. The answer is no, not yet. Right now I'm doing the full beard, but we'll see what happens. Here's what it looks like:

The grapes are still a ways away, so I'll have to stick to beaches and wine tasting for now. Wish me luck.

Week 2

I think it's really interesting how short of a time it took for me to feel comfortable here. The US to Australia isn't the biggest jump, but after only two weeks here, it already feels like home and not just some place I'm visiting. 

One of my favorite parts about Mollydooker so far is that the standard work week is 38 hours long. We only have to work 6 hours on Fridays, so we get off at 2 to get the weekend started early. Last Friday, we had a barbecue at the winery before everyone headed off to go camping at the beach. Here's a shot some of us in the water:

The camp ground was in a great spot and we had a lot of fun that night. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and doing a bit more wine tasting. We still don't have a car, so we're pretty limited in where we can go and what we can do at this point. Ben and I wanted to go tasting at a winery called Noon that we had heard a lot about, so on Sunday we went for a walk to check it out. It was a pretty long walk, about an hour and a half each way. After finally making it out there, we found out that they were closed because they had sold out of everything they made for the past year. But since we had walked all that way, we decided to step inside and have a look anyway. While we were snooping around, we ended up bumping into the winemaker who gave us a tour and his card and told us to come back and check things out when there was some action. We still didn't get to taste any of their wines, so we'll have to head back there in about a month. It's a beautiful place though, so I won't mind making the trek again. 

Things are beginning to pick up at the winery, but the grapes still have a little bit of time before we'll be picking them, so we've been splitting time doing wine work and general cleaning at the facility. On Tuesday, I was out doing some yard work in a spot we call the Wood Lot. There are some great views up there, but we also came across a baby Eastern Brown snake while we were there. I later found out that it's one of the deadliest snakes in the world, and it being a baby, it was even worse because they can't control their venom at that stage. Gotta love Australia.

Here's a shot of the view:

And here's a shot of the baby Brownie:

Wednesday was our first payday, so we decided to celebrate by drinking some wine and checking out the lawn bowling spot in town. I'd never played before, but that game is a lot of fun. It's a lot like bocce ball, but with balls that are slightly bigger on one side than the other so they curve when you roll them. I going to need a little bit of practice though as the final score of our game was 7 to 6 to 1, with Jeff edging Chris and me bringing up the rear. Here's a shot of Jeff making the winning roll:

Things are going well here, and we might be doing some exploring this weekend. I'll keep you posted if we do.

John