Disclaimer: I am not a wine reviewer and wouldn’t have a clue how to write about wine. I like some wines and not others, but can’t really explain why, unless they are fruity white goon from a cask, in which case it’s quite easy to explain.
This weekend is the Southern and East Coast wineries open weekend.
Fifty-one wineries are open to the public this weekend, including some that aren’t regularly open for tasting.
Rather than go to the better-known wineries that are always open, we decided to visit some in our local area that we’d never been to and that weren’t usually open.
Two of these were down the river in Granton, and the other one was further up, near Plenty. Rather than one long trip today, we decided to visit Laurel Bank and Viridian this afternoon, and go up to Kinvarra Estate tomorrow.
The first place we went to was Laurel Bank in Blake Snake Lane, Granton.
They have a lovely view over the river.
And this shed really caught my eye. How good would it be to get closer to it with my camera in some lovely lighting!
But back to the wine, which was the reason we went there. The Sunday Tasmanian wineries guide (form the link above) says:
Kerry and Laurel Carland have 3ha of 20 year-old vines consistently producing exceptional medal-winning wines by their international winemaking daughter Greer, winemaker at Winemaking Tasmania, all at true value-for-money prices this weekend.
Wines: ’10 Sauvignon Blanc ($20), ’09 Pinot Noir (bronze $26), ’08 Pinot Noir (3 silver $26), ’07 Pinot Noir (gold, silver, bronze $26) and ‘06 Cabernet/merlot ($24).
This is the Cab Merlot:
We left Laurel Bank with a bottle of the Cabernet Merlot for us, two bottles for our friends and a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc.
Next stop was Viridian Wines, at Broadview Vineyard, in Rowbottoms Road, Granton, just up the road from Stefano Lubiana.
The wineries guide says:
Originally planted in 1996, now owned by Lyn and Michael Rochford who run it on eco-sustainable lines and this weekend are presenting some interesting vertical and pre-release tastings.. And the views are fabulous.
Wines: ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘10 Rieslings (all $24), ’07 and ’10 Unwooded Chardonnays ($22), ’08, ’09 and ‘10 Pinot Noirs ($27).
It was interesting to taste the series of Rieslings, from 2007 to 2010, and the Chardonnay I tasted (and ended up buying) was actually the 2007. I’ve quite surprised myself in recent months by liking some of the unwooded Tassie chardonnays, because I really haven’t like Chardonnay for a long time.
Juniordwarf had a wonderful time checking out the vines and meeting one of the vineyard dogs, Rocky.
Tomorrow we'll finish off our winery tour with a visit to Kinvarra Estate in Plenty.
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