March madness…that’s how everyone describes Adelaide at this time of year! With WomAdelaide, an open air festival set in Adelaide’s beautiful botanic gardens, the Adelaide Fringe, the world’s second largest annual arts festival, and of course we’re heading into Autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere which only means one thing…harvest kicks off!!
Adelaide has a reputation as the ‘Festival State’, it’s even written on car number plates of all things! But it has certainly been true for the past month. I’ve long been a fan of the Edinburgh Fringe, finding any excuse to find myself up in Edinburgh in August each year so I was beyond excited to see what was in store here in Adelaide.
And it didn’t disappoint – the aptly named ‘garden of unearthly delights’ offered up a smorgasbord of comedy, circus, music, dance, acrobatics, burlesque, drama, art and I even dragged myself on a fairground ride or two. Do we ever really grow up?
I was even lucky enough to win tickets to WomAdelaide from the lovely people at S.C. Pannell. So my wine recommendations this month had to be their delicious Mediterranean style wines. Slightly more tricky to find in the UK but a couple of specialist suppliers have some stock:
The brands S.C.Pannell, Koomilya and Protero are all wines made by Stephen Pannell. Their Nebbiolo’s are absolutely delicious. Traditionally an Italian grape variety this is grown in the Adelaide Hills where the cooler climate helps maintain crisp acidity. The Protero Nebbiolo has amazing, elegant tannins with delicious cherry and blackcurrant fruit aromas and an earthiness that is so soft and round, it just melts in your mouth. So good with a delicious home-made spag bol recently!
Or try their wines with Touriga in the blend, traditionally a Portuguese grape variety used for port, it helps to create really robust full bodied reds. My favourite was their Koomilya Touriga Cabernet which was like nothing I’d tried before but the Touriga/ Tempranillo was also good – powerful and complex, dark cherry and chocolate aromas.
Let me know if you find them anywhere else in the UK!
Woo looks so fun!