Text 9136, 120 rader
Skriven 2006-12-21 22:07:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: more clare 720
======================
The sign for the soapmaker was mounted on a battered old
truck - it said to turn off the main road, which we did,
only to find nothing. We consulted the tourist map, to no
avail, but noticed that a couple of our target wineries
were on the small winding road parallel to the highway.

And so to Kirrihill, which was hard to find - we couldn't
see it going southward at all but managed to do so while
retracing our steps. We actually found Wendouree, which was
closed (Kevin later claimed that if we had called ahead and
mentioned his name, they might have seen fit to open for us)
and Tim Adams. Glen remembered that Kevin had said something
about Tim Adams but forgot if he was a great guy or a great
what, so we passed up his winery in favor of lunch. The
Kirrihill tasting room is in the basement of a restaurant,
so ...

Riesling 06 - very acid, a barrier to the nice citrus
fruit coming out; the acid dominated throughout

Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 03 - very heavy bitter oak,
boiled sweets, berries, like the overoaked California
Chards we used to get in the '80s and '90s

Langhorne Creek Shiraz 03 - also very acid that dominated
the profile, fruit in the background. Needs a couple of
years of bottle age to tame it

Clare Shiraz 03 - lots of acid and tannin, the old shoes
coming right out, but honey, berries, and a bit of
coconut came out, redeeming the wine.

Above Kirrihill is the Salt 'n' Vines Bar & Bistro, where
Paulett was the winery of the month. It was also deserted
but for us and one girl who served as hostess and waitress
and telephone booking taker (for dinner, I presume). We
wondered whether there was a cook out back.

Turned out there was, and a reasonable one at that.

Salt-pepper squid was the usual South Australian travesty -
I know that it's become sort of the signature dish of the
Adelaide restaurants, but they use way too big pieces of
squid and a way too gross coating (sometimes it's a batter
and sometimes a breading, and sometimes there's more of
it and sometimes less, but it's always flabby) - probably
a bit more heat under the fryer might help, but oddly other
fried things are often fine. Glen ordered a dish of this,
and Carol and I had a seafood combination, which included a
couple pieces of that squid and

grilled scallops in the shell that, however, were pristine
ingredients done nicely, two per plate, with delicious
coral roe (which Carol doesn't like, so I got extra).

A rather heavy batter marred nicely fried prawns, but fried
flathead was a revelation of flaky tender fish - the flavor
was similar to but, I thought, nicer than, that of catfish.

These treasures were piled over and about an undressed
mesclun salad, which, being a good boy, I ate all of.

The Paulett sparkling Riesling was pleasantly off-dry,
the considerable acid delicately balanced by a touch of
sweet; woody aroma and a nice flavor of grapefruit and
apricots - good with the fish but faded before the
prawns and squid;

Paulett Chardonnay 04 was deep gold, lots of glycerin,
tons of oak; mushrooms on the nose, pineapple, raspberry,
lemon, vanilla - rather like a better-quality California
wine; went well with the shellfish but nastily brought
out the mud and algae of the flathead.

We got instructions on how to get to the soapmaker - turns
out she's on a side road but had not bothered to put up the
appropriate "turn here" sign. We found the shop, and Carol
hit it off with her, and as a result of this rather lengthy
visit (as long as our visit to any winery) we ended up
carting away a sizable array of soaps and stuff.

Neagles Rock, another of the new stars, is right on the main
highway through Clare and as such was quite a bit busier
than any of the other wineries. It also has a popular-priced
canteen and a black Lab, which help to bring in the curious
multitudes.

Rieslings:

05 - mellow nose but surprisingly acid, very lively, decent
fruit, I enjoyed this

06 - much acid, tropical fruit, unsubtle; once it settles
down it'll do well

04 reserve - that Clare kerosene in abundance, tropical
fruit hiding behind with a honey finish, interesting

05 reserve - the best of the lot, a quintessential
green-apple Riesling, comfortable to taste by itself but
would go nicely with any number of foods.

Reds:

Cabernet 04 - chocolate, eucalyptus, green pepper, I found
it flawed by the greenness but not unpleasant

One Black Dog reserve 04 - a real winner, lots of mint and
currant (60% Cabernet), slight plastic with chocolate later
(40% Shiraz), long blackberry finish, a first rate wine.

The regular wines are free for tasting; the reserves cost
$2 a pop, but we were forgiven the last charge, having
expressed appropriate admiration for the two others.

I was tempted to buy a bottle of One Black Dog but resisted
as our luggage threatened to become unwieldy.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)