Local wine on a windy, sunny day
I love this photograph which comes from some of Nillumbik's tourism publicity. It was taken in autumn so the wrong time of year, but I just had to use it.
The Shire of Nillumbik is our local council area and spreads from the fairly densely populated township of Eltham out into the hills around the Yarra Valley. It's not really the Yarra Valley I suppose - more the hills above the valley to the north. In fact I see that Nillumbik tourism have renamed the area as the Artisan Hills - which is very Eltham somehow. The area known as the Yarra Valley and which contains all the region's big wineries is further to the east and north. Twice a year the smaller vineyards of the area have an Open Cellars weekend. (Some of them are open on a more regular basis as well, but lots are not.) Yesterday was the spring opening and, with a couple of friends, we decided to do the tour. There was no post yesterday because we were out in the country.
We were lucky with the weather which was sunny and warm - well if you stayed out of the wind which was pretty vicious. The men enjoyed the tasting, and the women enjoyed the drive through the truly stunning countryside. I tried taking a couple of photos with my iPhone (I had forgotten my camera), but they don't really show the true beauty of it all. It's hard to take landscapes isn't it? And I didn't have a kangaroo to pose nicely for me. I hope they give you some idea though.
At one point the GPS lost us somewhat profoundly which caused us to travel along some pretty small unmade roads through the forest. By then I was driving because David had drunk too much, so he was a bit stressed out in the passenger seat. Never a good passenger at the best of times and bendy roads, not knowing where we were and feeling a bit car sick too, plus a near collision because some local who wasn't expecting to find anyone else on the road - was just a bit too much for him. But eventually, of course, we found where we were - having gone round in circles I suspect for a bit.
It wasn't too busy a day which is probably not that great for the vineyards as many of them had hired people to provide food and music for the day, but maybe they will have a better day today. The advantage was that they had plenty of time to chat to the their visitors.
We only visited four vineyards in the end, and only bought a few bottles - most of the wines from these vineyards are a bit pricier than we usually pay, and some, let's be honest, were not that great. We finished at one of David's favourites - a true local - Kings of Kangaroo Ground, where we were the last guests of the day and where our two men spent ages chatting to Ken and Chris - the winemakers. Monika and I repaired to the car to wait.
Their Pinot, apparently was lovely and, indeed, has won several medals so a few bottles were bought, and because they are so nice they gave us a Riedel wine glass as a bonus. They are off to a big wine show in Hong Kong shortly to try and sell their wines into Asia I would guess. Ken has just retired from the local council on which he served for many years - he has been mayor a couple of times too I think. He is a very entertaining guy - well they both are.
It was a lovely day. I am always blown away by how lucky we are to have such beautiful countryside right on our doorstep. All you English people over there should come and visit.
