November 22, 2009
bushfires, wine, and heat
We’re back from Mudgee. Hot, hot, hot Mudgee. We arrived up there on Friday and were told that it was 47 degrees at 1.30pm…. it felt 47 degrees. We were going to go wine tasting, but instead we went to the brewery, tasted a few beers, then headed back to our lovely b&b to plonk ourselves in the pool for the afternoon. Lovely. Dinner was a homestyle affair at Deebs Kitchen, nice, but unusual, then we headed to the local hotspot, Roth’s wine bar with all the local wine-makers. Most of them had been there since around 6pm, drinking whites and beers trying to cool down, they were way way ahead of us in the drinks department so when ice throwing and buckets of water started going down the back of shirts, we slipped away, determined not to be hungover for our Saturday classes.
Saturday morning it was 35 degrees by 9am, we arrived at Lowe wines late, and were led down to the winery in the searing heat, David having not been one of the wine-makers out the night before, was bright eyed and bushy tailed and he led us on a tour of the vines, a tour of the compost heap and his political convictions. I really enjoyed myself, apart from the heat and the hot sun, he was interesting and passionate and most importantly his wines we tasted were good. Very good.
Next stop di Lusso. Now Rob was one of the night-owls and it was fairly obvious on our tour of his estate, we tasted some wines, sat down for a great lunch of woodfired pizza and lamented the 44 degree heat burning outside. We were carrying our esky in and out of the winery’s since the temperature in the car was at least 55 degrees and our purchases would never have survived….
Next stop Mudgee Wines which again was very interesting. Wine-maker Luciano is young, Italian and gorgeous and most of us just sat and stared, barely hearing a thing he said, just smiling when he smiled, following when he led us out into the sun, and nodding our head when we were tasting his 2009 shiraz straight from the barrel. Sadly for them, luckily for us, the stock held at Mudgee Wines was from the previous owners, and none of Lucianos handiwork, so purchases were minimal.
The last stop of the day around 4.30pm was Robert Stein. We were all exhausted and suffering from heat-stroke and taste bud shut down from so many wines but Jacob the wine-maker was one step ahead of us. He cut down his winery tour and instead led us out by the billabong where we just sat in the breeze and did a vertical tasting of their 2007, 2008, and 2009 Gewürztraminers and the same with their award winning Rieslings. All chilled to the perfect temperatures and all perfectly balanced it was actually a pleasure. A great plan, and fantastic wines, all led by the most enthusiastic of the young Mudgee wine-makers. Jacob would have to be my new hero.
We hung out in the pool till our body temperatures were bought back to something reasonable, a pub dinner, another bottle at Roths with Luciano and then to bed we went. Exhausted. I don’t think the temperature dipped below 38 overnight and the eerie skyline and the smell of fire in the air was haunting.
This morning it was another scorcher. We started by buying ice for our esky and our wines, then went on a tour of Andrew Harris by the winemaker Lisa. I liked her style of minimalism, the tour was quick, to the point, it was her day off, and we were all hungover. Perfect. For some reason the cellar door was closed so we were spared the tasting at that hour until arriving at the next stop of Broombee Wines.
Here the wines are all organic, hand picked, hand managed, blended and bottled all by Barry who’s been doing it on his own for years. The wines are good, surprisingly so considering the size of the operation. They sell only at the cellar door or by phone orders and word of mouth – quite amazing considering the competition here in Australia, even Mudgee itself.
Last stop was Logan wines which was a magnificent building, view over the valley, a whole lot of floor to ceiling windows and clean lines, cheese plates and riedel glasses. The sparkling was fabulous, so were a few of the whites, we favoured the premium range (of course!) made with grapes bought from Orange, but the reds were a little disappointing, nevermind, by this stage our esky was bursting at the seams, the car was full and it was time to head home before the bushfires blocked the route home.
There are 160 bushfires already burning in NSW and it’s still only November. The four hour drive home was hot and smoky but we made it safe and sound and arrived home to a house that had been closed up in the Sydney temperatures of 42 degrees today. It’s too hot to do anything, not even sleep and the humidity is high, we had thai outside at the local restaurant with a bottle we bought from our fridge at home and I’m sitting here in the dark with the fan blowing on my face directly while Michelle is flat out watching some program on Islam and Science, which requires too much brainpower on my behalf.
Tomorrow the forecast is for rain and 21 degrees. I’ll believe it when I see it. My plan is to empty our bags and file away all our new wine and reflect on our wonderful weekend away in the country. Very strenuous. Better I get to bed now for an early start tomorrow.
filles at 10:22 pm
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