WINE

Anybody who has spend more than a few minutes with Moira and myself will know that we are particularly fond of wine. All types but not sweet, we do not do dessert wines. So it was a pleasant surprise when we received a gift of a vineyard tour of the Yarra Valley, a rich wine producing area around Melbourne.

So on Saturday we woke up early and slowly made our way to the meeting point, the George Hotel, on Fitzroy street. It was just before nine and our tour was to pick us up outside the Hotel. Moira went in to buy a coffee for us and I stood outside wondering why the bus was not there yet, it was closing in on 9am and no sign of a wine tour bus. I looked around me and up at the Prince of Wales Hotel. Slowly realisation dawned and I ran into the coffee house,

"We're in the wrong place" I blurted before running out of the shop and up the road. As fast as my little legs could carry me I ran up the road to the next large pub/hotel. Luckily there was the bus, the driver was standing outside and as I approached he asked for my name. I am beginning to get used to the unusual stare I receive when I say "Moira" now as most of the trips have been booked in her name and I know this is what is written down on their hardboard list. Moira brought up the rear and we finally sat on the bus, panting, having thrown our coffee's in the bin. Apparently the air con makes the smell linger. Two more pickups and we were off.

A couple of years ago we took our trusty car on a voyage into France, driving across towards Germany to see some vineyards and taste local wines. We had stoped off in the Champagne region and visited some of the big names there so we were professionals when it came to the whole wine tour process. First look at the fruit and wonder at how many tons were being harvested (It's autumn here so it was approaching harvest time), then look at the vats and tanks used to ferment the wine. Make appropriate noises, usually lots of "ooohs", "Ah"'s and the occasional "Wow thats a lot of wine". Finally get down to some serious tasting. We had done this in France and especially round the Moet & Chandon vintner.

Which was lucky as our first stop was Chandon, a subsidiary of the French wine producers. They made sparkling wines which they cannot call champagne but due to the heritage must be the closest thing over here. A tour commenced and although our Guide, Nick, was knowledgeable, I was wanting to fill in the bits I knew about from the previous tours. Such as the fact that the bottoms of the bottles are weaker than the rest so if one explodes whilst stacked in the caves it does not destroy all those bottles around it, merely loses the end of the bottle. But I stayed quiet and provided the appropriate level of "oooh" and "Aaah" when required. They did mention the second fermentation of champagne and how the yeast is extracted, which always reminds me of watching Garth doing the same in his kitchen, wine exploding across the room as he quickly tried to reseal the bottles. The vineyards are less than an hour outside Melbourne so it was 11am when they finally finished the quick tour and we were ushered into the Green room for tasting of our single glass of Champers. Both of us chose the vintage sparkling and it was good.

After the free tasting we wandered into the shop where there was more tasting, this time with the intention of making us purchase as much wine as possible. Now a clear difference here to France was the attitude of the staff. In France to try is to buy almost, with withering looks from staff if, after a glass, you merely moved onto a new wine without purchasing a bottle immediately. here they were happy to pour several glasses and continue to do so even if it was obvious that there was no sale in place. We were, of course, very aware that the sun was hanging well below the yard-arm and as such only tasted the free wines. Maybe ten or so. After the tasting we bought a bottle of the vintage and boarded the bus for the next vineyard.

Rochford Wines is a large Vineyard in Yarra and as well as having an extensive vine selection they also play host to concerts and open air movies. They also have an excellent restaurant which was where dinner had been booked. At this station they introduced us to the local Sauvignon Blanc, completely different from the Marlborough Sav Blancs (see my little wine abbreviation there) and ran us through the tasting process. Swirling, sniffing, colour etc. But without the spitting! A couple of tasters later and lunch was served, again friendly staff who were all to eager to continue to pour drinks for our palates to experience. For those interested Moira had a Barramundi fillet on Asian veggies and I had a rather dry looking piece of pork. After the meal we wandered into the shop, surprise, and got down to some serious tasting. Pinot, sav blanc and some others were quaffed, I like that word, and eventually we decided on a nice red to buy and take with us.


Up next was Yering Station set in picturesque countryside, this station was acclaimed as being a winner of tourist winery of the year. and again a quick tasting session, this time Pinto Noir, and we weer left to our devices in the shop. Again in the large vineyards they had a selection of some outstanding wines although this time, maybe we were tired, we just settled for a cheaper Pinot, Mr Frog, rather than one of the expensive vintages. Just a easy quaffable light wine for the evening.

Finally a family run vineyard Helens Hill is a smaller vineyard at just 150 acres. They have been producing wine for 20 years and are practically a fledgling company in the region. They immediately made everyone feel welcome and quickly dispersed Pinot Noir and Sav Blanc for all to taste, comparing the standard wines with vintiges. The staff were quick to point out that they were a small and new company and that they had been working hard to produce the wines on offer. We tasted a few wines and during this we also found out that they had been affected by the recent fires. They had lost 20 acres to the fires and their red was being tested to see if the smoke had damaged the grapes beyond the ability to make wine form them. So this year could be a lean year for this vineyard. We decided to buy three bottles of the Sav Blanc, two normal and one vintage. Luckily this came in a gift pack and so was a little cheaper.


Note, at the end of the green vines the trees are coloured brown, showing how close the fires came to this vineyard.

After this we headed back to Melbourne, the tour was over and we had spent an excellent day in the country. Melbourne was having a river festival, the Moomba Festival, and there were displays of water ski-ing and wakeboarding on the river Yarra during the day. But laden with bottles we decided that we would visit that another day.

The next day , in fact, was when we found ourselves down by the river. Walking along the banks of the Yarra, there were stalls everywhere highlighting the river flora and fauna. Some were giving away tips on how to save water, Australians are obsessed by the stuff, but this is hardly surprising as they really don't have that much of it. Victoria is in drought conditions and the government are trying to get everyone to limit their usage to 155 litres a day. We even have a small eggtimer in the shower in order to aid us with showering in under 4 minutes. Other stalls were selling food or giving people th chance to win oversized muppet stuffed toys (not endorsed by the Jim Henson workshop I hasten to add). We cruised the banks and then headed for the pub, it's funny the looks you get whilst sitting in the pub next to a three foot tall kermit the frog!!

Fishing

Many years ago I used to go fishing with my dad, fishing the rivers and canals in Yorkshire. He found it therapeutic and I found it rather dull. When I did, rarely, catch anything it would usually be a small stickleback, no more than two inches long and didn’t quite fulfil the image of man against wild beastie. Not quite eating fare for sure.

So I was quite exited by the prospect of a fishing trip on a boat in the bay. It was an unexpected surprise present from Moira’s family and I was looking forward to having the picture just like the one in my mind. That’s is me, holding aloft the largest fish you have ever seen whilst grinning into the camera. Or maybe stepping back on the boat and uttering my favourite line from “that” fishy film;

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

I was looking forward to it. Moira was not as keen as she suffers from motion sickness and was not entirely happy about the thought of being on a boat for four hours. To ease this we decided to go out and buy some motion sickness pills so that she would not feel queasy. First stop – a health shop. I ask you, really, a Health Shop. They specialise in ridiculous herbal teas and tables designed to cleanse your aura or something. We should be going to a Pharmacy, they sell medicine, real medicine that you take three times a day before eating. Asking the staff for advice they pointed out some tablets for travel sickness, and what was the active chemical used to quell the nausea, Zingiber officinale or to give it the common name - Ginger. Each tables was four hundred milligrams of ginger. Ground ginger, that’s all!! And what did they charge for this miracle cure, fifteen dollars that’s what. Fifteen dollars for some ground up ginger. I am sorry but I can go to a supermarket and buy ginger root for a lot les than fifteen dollars and that would be just as effective. Bloody witch doctors, I mean Ginger!!! So the wife bought them, bought ginger tablets!

We set off on the day, slowly making our way out of the bay, we had a guide, Jill, who was also a Scottish ex-pat working the boats. The fishing we would be doing was drift fishing, basically we had a line and a weight. We placed bait on the hook and dropped the whole lot into the sea. When it hit the bottom the bait would float around near the sea bed and be dragged along by the drifting boat. Two types of bait were available, squid and pilchard. Actually the pilchard looked quite appetising so I knew if I didn’t catch anything I could always gorge on the bait. The waiting reminded me of sitting by a river, aged nine, watching a float bob around hoping that a large carp or perch would drag it away and provide some excitement. Nothing! After a few minutes one guy caught a fish, yeay! They had to throw it back though as it was less than the regulatory 27 cms long. I kept bringing my hook back up to see if anything had decided to jump on the hook, if fact most of the time it looked as though my bait had decided to jump off the hook.

Suddenly Moira was winding in her line, she had something! I excitedly watched her valiantly fight against this monster of the deep, reeling in the fishy prey, fighting against nature. If anyone has seen those fishing films where marlin are jumping out of the water and men are strapped into their chair tiring themselves out fighting the fish, then they should know that this was nothing like that. The fish came up and it was a flat head. That’s its name and the best description I can think off. A small fish (one foot – confirmed) brown in colour and with a decidedly flat-ish head. We were told not to try and grab them as they had vicious spines in the fins that would give a sting if caught. Now this was more like it, we were fighting killer fish, well at least well armed and quite angry fish anyway. When the fish was on board and had been taken off the hook it was measured and hey, Moira caught the first keeper. We had one fish for supper. Now the action really took off. People all around the boat started reeling in fishes and they kept being thrown into the keep box. But not me!! No, my bait kept disappearing from my hook and I got nothing, so I devised a special plan. The pilchard seemed to fall of the hook but the squid did not attract the fish. So I wrapped the squid around the pilchard and hooked the hook through both fishes, like an ornate fish only sushi roll. Even if the fishes were not that impressed with the content then they should surly be happy with the presentation. Dropping the combination bait into the water I waited and sure enough, a bite. I reeled in a fish, it looked big enough to keep, and turned to get the attention of the guy with the de-hooking device. Alas when I turned back it was to see the fish leap majestically off the hook and drop into the ocean. Perhaps I should have not left him hanging over such a big temptation. And I swear I heard it laugh as it dropped below the surface. This was swiftly followed by a further two bites from midget versions of the flathead, called baby flathead, that were too small to keep.

Soon we had company, a seal saw our efforts and decided that fishes being dragged from the ocean floor for him to eat was too good an opportunity for him to miss, certainly easier than diving down and chasing them around as per usual. So he hung around, we moved the boat and he followed. You can see the seal in this photo moira took, its the grey shape in the water below the tip of the rod.

Obviously with him in the water we couldn’t fish so eventually we moved the boat. But no bites, this area was barren and the fish were not interested in or meagre dining. Eventually the skipper (that’s boat speak for captain or driver) decided we should return to the area where the fish were and soon we were back in the fishy hunting grounds, this time sans seal. With less than one hour to go I finally had a bite! And when this one came up he was brought over the boat, I had learned from my earlier encounter and now my Kung Foo was stronger than the fish! He was big enough and was a keeper. One each to Moira and me. The boat returned to shore and at this point everyone decided it was time to suffer from motion sickness. Several people started being ill over the side of the boat, however not Moira.

They shared out the fillets once we were back at the dock and we took some away, they were delicious. Cooked in white wine, garlic and served with pasta.

All in all the day turned out to be an absolute blast! Man against killer, well OK not killer but very dangerous-ish, fish and a seal. The thrill of the hunt and the joy of the prize (feast).

And could you believe that 400mg of Ginger actually does stop you from feeling seasick! Its a tried and traditional herbal remedy you know!

Finally, although the fires brought devestation to us here in Australia there were some beautiful sunsets created when the smoke hung over the bay like this one: