We make a day trip out to McLaren Vale in South Australia, less than 1 hour's drive from Adelaide. On today's agenda is a wine tasting in a bus at an Instagrammable winery, then a superb 6 course lunch at a winery with a vineyard tour and mead tasting. Then we cap off the day with a visit to a distillery with a view that has a very unique gin style.
I peer out the window of the baby blue double decker bus that is parked on the lawn of Down The Rabbit Hole Wines. There's a sea of people lounging on the picnic rugs, dressed up for a day of winery visits. McLaren Vale's close proximity to Adelaide means that on a weekend lots of people rent a bus and visit the region to try different wineries.
Down the Rabbit Hole Wines is owned by couple Dom Palumbo and Elise Cook. As a first generation wine maker Dom first tried making a Shiraz when he was 25 years old. It was an instant hit and accolades followed quickly with the wine placing third out of 100 wines. The couple celebrated the victory and afterwards when they were pondering whether to make wine making a more full time venture, Elise said that she wasn't sure if they could do it again, as they really went down the rabbit hole. It was then that the name of the winery was born.
Most of the tastings happen on the bus and and we will be trying 8 wines that equals around 2 standard drinks. The reason for the bus is because the couple travelled around Australia in a combi van for years detailing their time on Instagram. All of the wines are made at a winery 600 metres away and all use locally grown grapes from McLaren Vale. The couple created a rhyming poem that is detailed on the back of the label and each wine is named after a line in the poem. The Blanc de Blanc Aimez Beaucoup is made of 100% Chardonnay grapes and uses malolactic fermentation to carbonate the sparkling wine. It's a perfect wine to drink on a warm day like today.
The Tempranillo is made from 100% Tempranillo grapes with a dry finish and is suited for pizza, pasta or cheese boards. The Grenache is smooth and made using McLaren Vale Grenache that is hand picked. My favourite red is the Mataro or Mourvedre that is wonderfully smooth with hints of blueberry and spice.
If I can offer you any advice before visiting Maxwell Wines, it's to put aside a good day to visit it, or at least 4 hours for the full experience. This stunning limestone winery has an incredible restaurant on site, wine tastings, vineyard tour, cave tour, helicopter tour and is also one of the largest mead makers in the world.
Mark Maxwell is a second generation winemaker. His father, Ken Maxwell of Daringa Winery was one of the original winemakers of the region. In 1997 Mark built his own winery that sits on three levels on a limestone hill that overlooks McLaren Vale. Once inside, look up and you'll see the hemlock wood ceiling. The wood was originally brought over as ballast on a ship where it was used to build a railway station.
Mark is a man whose best ideas come to him in the shower including the name of their sparkling wine that is called "Envious" aka NVS or Non Vintage Sparkling. And while some in this region would stick to wine, he has branched out to become one of the world's largest mead makers. "We have the purest honey in the world here in South Australia," says Mark. They produce over 200,000 bottles of mead a year and to make their 4 varieties of mead they use lucern or alfalfa honey from South Australia.
We start our tasting with a can of their sparkling mead. This is the drink I want to have on a warm afternoon. This is the driest of the four meads with the lowest honey and alcohol level. There is also a traditional mead, a spiced mead that is wonderful served warm and my other favourite, the mead liqueur. And did you know that the word honeymoon is associated with mead? In Norse legend, warriors who reach Valhalla are given mead by maidens. The word "honeymoon" comes from the Nordic tradition of giving newlyweds a month's supply of mead, symbolising a lunar cycle.
Maxwell Dined is their in-house and much lauded restaurant open for lunch only. At the helm is German born chef Fabian Lehmann. Today we are having their six course meal with matching house wines which I definitely recommend as the wine matches are all superb. There is also a 10 course menu available too.
The first three dishes are snacks and the first to arrive is a paper thin cup made in a pie tee mold filled with fermented buckwheat, finely diced zucchini, tomato, shallot, and a monte rosso cheese mousse.
Then segue into the crab toast with house baked brioche topped with South Australian blue swimmer crab with smoked butter and white onion purée topped with crispy onion and furikake seasoning. I nibbled off every morsel of the topping it was so good.
Whatever you do, do not miss out on the steamed buns topped with wagyu tartare and a smoked emulsion with capers, shaved egg yolk and oscietra caviar. They remove the glass cloche and smoke fills the air. The steamed bun is fried until crispy and golden and the topping is so soft and lucious with the pop of caviar and the creamy texture of the wagyu that you want to take slow, small bites to savour it all. This is last meal territory here, it is that divine.
The next course is ocean trout with kohlrabi, red lentils and a chive anchovy emulsion topped with trout roe and an aerated whey broth. This is a delicate dish, all about the textures of the trout and roe paired with delicate supporting flavours. I did think that the red lentils seemed a bit out of place in this dish though.
The next course is the main meat course of pork belly. The pork is brined and sous vide before being pan finished. It's paired with shiitake purée, caramelised sauerkraut and delicate layers of lardo with puffed buckwheat and a roasted yeast sauce. The pork is lusciously soft and the roasted yeast sauce lends this dish an interesting complexity. The pork also comes with a loaf of malted wheat bread, warm and crispy on the outside with a moreish cultured soy butter.
Dessert is a hazelnut cake with cubes of lemon pastille jelly, feuilletine crunch hazelnut mousse and a quenelle of yuzu, lemon sorbet. It's a sizeable dessert and although six courses is perfect for lunch for me I don't think I can finish it no matter how much I want to.
The petit four is a tart filled with passionfruit and yuzu cream, coconut lime mousse, toasted coconut and edible gold powder. This is such a delightful petit four with creamy, light filling in an incredibly thin, crisp shell.
Make sure to book one of the vineyard tours that will take you around the picturesque vineyards. We pass Grenache wines that were planted in 1928 and we watch Mark's horticultural assistants at work - the ibises perch high on top of the vines and help to get rid of snails while sheep eat the weeds. We pass a mother sheep and two tiny lambs that were born just this morning. The tour goes for 1 hour and also goes into the geology, soils and wine making process as well as a visit to the illuminated cellar. And if you have any time leftover make sure to get yourself lost in the maze on the grounds.
**Never Never Distilling Co. **
Never Never is the space between stars and horizon and this Australian saying is all about journeying into the unknown. And it was this leap of faith that three friends took with Never Never Distilling Co. that most recently sold for an undisclosed sum to Asahi. The story of Never Never Distilling Co. started in 2015 with George Georgiadis, Tim Boast and Sean Baxter. George is the managing director, Tim is the head distiller and Sean is the brand director and face of the company.
The unique selling point of their gin is the triple juniper. First, juniper berries soak in Australian wheat spirit for a day. Then this mix along with fresh juniper goes into the still. The skip rectification column step is skipped and then lastly, more juniper is added to the vapour basket to capture an even stronger juniper flavour. The juniper they use is grown wild in North Macedonia.
They started off with a smaller Still called Wendy but even running this twice a day was not keeping up with demand and they progressed to an enormous still that they've called Nancy after Tim's grandmother. Nancy's capacity is 1500 litres and can make 5 times the gin that Wendy did.
Never Never Distillery's cellar door in McLaren Vale is shared with another winery. It opened in 2020, 5 weeks prior to COVID and turned immediately into a sales point for the distillery. We arrive on a sunny autumn day that could be spring as far as anyone is concerned. The vast expanse of lawn is where everyone congregates. There’s lawn chairs, cocktails and snacks from the food truck next to it.
Along with a range of cocktails and non alcoholic drinks, Never Never also offer three types of cocktail flights: Gin and Tonic, Negroni or Martini. They can either mix it for you or you can do a bit of mixing yourself which I opt for. All four cocktails are fantastic but the standout for me is the oyster shell cocktail made with actual oyster shells. Every year in August the distillery hold an "oysterpalooza" where people can order cocktails and half a dozen oysters. The top shells are then used in the gin. The shells give the gin a uniquely salty flavour that makes it so moreish. Staff are friendly and bring us some other gins to taste including a Juniper Freak gin that is another favourite.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever visited McLaren Vale? Which spot would be your pick and what do you look for when you visit a winery or distillery?
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