Christmas In Margaret River - Day 3

   No trip to wine country would be complete without a wine tour.  When planning the trip, Rob was quite skeptical about paying someone to drive us around to various wineries and wanted to go the self-guided route.  I thought this posed two problems: 1) we knew nothing about the region or which wineries would be most interesting to visit, and 2) someone has to stay sober enough to drive.  My Lonely Planet recommended Bush Tucker wine tours as an excellent way to taste some real gems, have a great day learning more about wine and the region while meeting interesting people AND have an Aussie bush lunch.  I thought this sounded perfect and thanks to my wonderful mum, didn't cost us a thing.

                                                           

   Our intrepid guide for the day, Silvano, was a total hoot.  From the moment we boarded the bus, he was so engaging and prodded us into mixing with the others on the tour.  We had a great 'team' for our day of 'hard work', as Silvano repeatedly referred to wine tasting, with six 20-something to 30-something couples from France, New Zealand, Australia, and (of course) Alaska.  Many in our group had recently moved to Perth and it was the first time to Margaret River for all.

   Xanadu was our first destination and the largest winery we visited all day.  Silvano started us out with a lively introduction to wine tasting to help our largely novice wine-taster group get the most out of the experience.  For all the posh atmosphere and award-winning wine we sampled, I didn't find anything I particularly loved, but Rob grabbed a few bottles he was fond of.

         

I loved this metal wall art at Xanadu (left); Silvano patiently giving us instructions (right)

   From Xanadu we trekked back up through M.R. to Adinfern Estates where we were treated to some remarkably excellent wines from such a tiny family operation.  The pace of tasting was a little more relaxed as this was also our lunch stop, so we had more time to chat with others in the group and discuss each wine a little more.  Rob and I quickly befriended Ruth and Raphael, a couple close to our age (and height for Ruth and me!) who recently relocated to Perth, and shared a bottle of Adinfern CabSav over lunch.

   At lunch we discovered, much to my chagrin, that I had been a bad, bad blogger and forgot to charge my camera battery before the trip (the horror, the horror!).  I also failed to pack the charger, meaning limited photo documentation for the rest of the trip :(  Which is a crying shame considering lunch itself was a work of art, with beautifully displayed, delectible bush foods.  Rob and I were also fortunate to get to try the witchetty grub (granted there wasn't a lot of competition for the honor).

 

I "borrowed" this shot from www.expedition360.com

   In the most jovial of moods after an excellent lunch and plenty of wine, we headed off to my favorite stop of the day - the Margaret River Chocolate Co.  I won't even go into just how much chocolate I bought here…  Then we were off to Knotting Hill Estates, the site of Julia Roberts' very private wedding earlier this year.  By this point we'd tasted ~20 wines and I was a bit sideways, so I opted to spit, which I still find disgraceful even if it is condoned.  Of course, I wasn't all that into their wines anyway.

   The last winery of the day was Tassel Park Wines, set on an absolutely stunning estate.  Mr. Tassel himself served us ample 'tastes' of his delectable wines and did a hefty round of sales through our group.  His was the first M.R. Shraz I truly enjoyed, so I simply had to take one home.  Our final tasting with him was quite out of place in the sultry heat of the afternoon, but aroused in me the one true Christmassy feeling I've had this year - mulled wine, mmmm… I drank Rob's too.

   By the time we made it to the brewery, our final point of interest, I wasn't feeling so swell.  We'd been drinking for five hours and it was quite hot, so I opted out of beer tasting.  All in all it was a most excellent day, capped of with a fantastic dinner we shared with Ruth and Raphael at the Arc of Iris restaurant in M.R.