Well my first week on campus finally attending face-to-face lectures got off to a bit of a shaky start and not just because I was a bit nervous. Our seventh floor classroom actually shook as a magnitude 6 earthquake hit neighbouring Victoria with the impact felt across South Australia. Luckily there was minimal damage and no injuries but it did mean we had to be evacuated from the building and while it remained closed for the remainder of the day, as a precautionary measure, this meant our class re-grouped at a new venue…The National Wine Centre, of course.
Adelaide itself is one of nine great wine capitals of the world, alongside the likes of Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Cape Town and Bilbao Rioja and is the gateway to 18 wine regions in South Australia. Adelaide’s National Wine Centre is a fantastic place to start to explore – opened in 2001 it’s a wine education centre, a wine events and experience venue offering tours and wine/ food pairing, as well as housing an awesome tasting bar with over 100 wines available for tasting by the glass. The centre even has it’s own vineyard, right in the middle of the city! A key focus of the centre is to encourage visitors to go out to the regions and visit cellar door experiences, they aim to act as an entry point and a guide.
So after being wowed by the architecture of the building, the fact that the centre is set within Adelaide’s beautiful botanic gardens and the breadth of the wine cellar we had to sample a couple of tasters:
Tasmania – Pooley – Riesling
Riesling is one of my favourite white wines as it’s such a versatile grape variety you get a whole spectrum of styles. I was intrigued to try this one as I LOVE Pooley’s Chardonnay and this had been given a decent write up in recent reviews. This was crisp, fresh with lovely apple and zesty citrus notes – really delicious.
Clare Valley – Jim Barry – Assyrtiko
Jim Barry is the only producer of Assyrtiko (a Greek variety) in Aus currently, this is a great citrus driven with crisp-acidity wine that is crying out for a seafood accompaniment.
Margaret River – McHenry Hohnen – Chardonnay
I’ve sampled a few Margaret River Chardonnay’s so far and have been really impressed. This one wasn’t my favourite though, unfortunately, classic flavours of peach/ nectarine but the oak didn’t have the soft rounded effect I enjoy.
Had a lovely lunch there last time we were in Adelaide. I suspect there was a fair amount of tasting too but can’t remember what!