Wednesday, August 26, 2009

McLaren Vale: Cleanskin

Who says wine and ice don't mix?

O rosemount glass


In McLaren Vale, you will come to a rosey winery called Rosemount, one of the most popular wineries you'll find in this region.

rosemount winery


rosemount winery entrance


red roses


Rosemount has this sparkling sweet delight called O.

O rosemount sparkling wine and glass


It comes with its own O glass where you can fill it with crushed ice (preferably) and is one of the easiest wine you'll ever drink.

Light. Sweet. Bubbly. And Fun.

drinking sparkling wine


It only cost AUD10 but I didn't have enough luggage space so I had the forgo the purchase. T_T


Anyway, back to the beginning of my trip.

malaysia - melbourne - adelaide


On the day of my graduation, I met Max, a professor from University of South Australia. He invited me to dinner that night to talk more about my profession (blogger?) and wanted to conduct an interview with me for his radio channel in Adelaide.

max in chapel hill
Max


Over our chat, he found out that I was to be in Adelaide only for a few days, mainly just to attend my graduation and I would be on my way for the next few weeks traveling further down south.

He also learnt that I wanted to do a roadtrip down to McLaren Vale - one of the three wine country I have not visited in South Australia state. The other two being Clare Valley and Barossa Valley.

on the road to mcclaren vale


So spontaneously, as always, he invited his friend and we all drove down to McLaren Vale the next day.

max and friend


Such was Australian hospitality. ;) (Thanks Max!)

26km to mcclaren vale


mcclaren vale


old small methodist church
A very old small Methodist church we passed by on the way


Our first stop over was a cute little winery called Chapel Hill (located at one of the northest part of McLaren Vale).

chapel hill winery


This house was a ironic little thing because Chapel Hill was really, a Chapel.

chapel window


chapel turned winery


Right. So they turned a holy place into a winery. Sweet.

tasting wine in chapel hill


standing in refinery
Check out their refinery!


It was also here in Chapel Hill that I learnt about the existence of Cleanskin wine.

cleanskin


Max explained to me that Cleanskin were actually label-less wine that's sold at a cheaper price than its label counterpart.

Why? Because there are simply wineries out there who tend to produce too much wine and in order to prevent selling them off at discounted price which would "lower the value" of their brands, they bottled them up and sell them off as Cleanskin.

cleanskin on sale in rosemount
Rosemount Cleanskins


Apparently, this is also a very Australian thing.

Cleanskin is very bit the same as a labeled wine,

chapel hill wines


so if you know where to look for (particularly at the wineries itself) and when, you'll be able to buy really good wine of your favourite winery at a dirt cheap price.

drinking wine from rosemount


(Once they go into wine shop, you'll never really know which winery they come from, apart from the region it's produced)

wink
Now you learn something. *wink*


We stumbled into Oscars while scouting around for food.
(Click on link to view my food blog review)

oscars restaurant in mcClaren vale


Now Oscars has to be one of the nicest Italian restaurants/bars I've ever been in my life. Situated in a wine country, I couldn't ask for a better ambiance and environment!

And the pizza was just to die for!

two types of pizza


max and food


Later we stopped by a few more wineries for more wine tasting and cam whoring sessions.

me and weird looking tall bird


The more wine we took, the funkier we got.

max and bird


"Max, stop harassing the bird."


homey winery setting
Couldn't remember which FINE house-looking winery is this. But LOVE the setting!


We drove passed rows of grape vines and realised that we were all alone in the area, with no one around.

grape vines


So we did the only thing anyone would have done if they were in our position.

.
.
.

We got out the car and started plucking the grapes.

me and grapes on vines close up


me holding a bunch of grapes


Bunch and bunch of beautiful tiny grapes~!!!!

grapes


mini seedy grapes on vines


grapes on vines


So many of them!

me and grapes on vines


Such abundance!

me in vineyard


Rows after rows.

me posing in between vines="


Even Max's friend was going at it!

maxs friend


grapes in hand


hiding among vines


holding a grape


It was already early April so most of the grapes were going to drop off respective their vines. Some were beginning to shrivel up.

dried up grapes


Natural RAISINS!

raisins on stalk
Man they're sweet!


We gathered just about enough, had enough fun, before deciding to climbed back into the car and silently drove off.

grapes in car


white grapes
"Can someone say fruitful event?"


Don't worry. Those growers have more than enough to share a few bunch with us.


Later driving around McLaren Vale, we came to what has to be the valley's prettiest winery.

hugh hamilton overview


Hugh Hamilton.


entrance sign


When you drive up to the winery from the entrance, you'll be parking in front of a row of olive trees.

olive trees


Now I've never seen olive trees up close before, so it was a rather interesting point of fact for me.

green olives
Raw green olives.


I did learn that, no matter raw or ripe, NEVER attempt to eat an olive straight out from a tree!

ripe olives


They tasted foul!!! Bitter right down to the pit of your stomach!


Back to the beauty of Hugh Hamilton.

entrance to hugh hamilton


Love the design. Love the vineyard.

me in front of hugh hamilton


me overlooking hugh hamilton vineyard


Love the panoramic view of the vineyard from the circular winery.

me and vineyard


Love the grape vines hanging from the roof.

max friend looking up


Love the fact that they used sheep as their mascot.

oyster knives sign


Or the fact that they sold oyster knife?

oyster knife


But mainly, love their sense of humor.

sheep dip


Sheep Dip! Haha!!

(If you don't know what Sheep Dip is? Google it up)

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