June 7th 2012 - Crabtree Wines

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Parent Category: South Australia
Category: Clare Valley
Created: Sunday, 24 June 2012 02:39

With the Clare Valley, the variety they excel at is Riesling, and that is also what has brought us here. Last year we stocked up on some wines from here an now the cupboard is bare. Last time we spent a few days here tasting wine and working out what we wanted, this time we know – Crabtree Riesling.


CrabTreeLogoCrabtree wines logo © 2010The Crabtree cellar door is small and rustic but great to visit. The crew make every effort to please and give great customer service. They care about the wine they produce and are more than happy to talk you through the tastings or just have a general chat. On this visit we were treated to Brendan's hospitality and enjoyed our early morning tasting.

When it comes to a good table wine that can be bought and consumed, their cellar door range is very good and at $15 a bottle ($12.50 in a dozen) is also great value. The Cellar Door range is a cold pressed blend of free run and light pressings.

For the more discerning palate, there is their Hilltop range. The Hilltop Riesling is hand-picked from the hilltop vineyard that overlooks Watervale, cold fermented and made from free run juices. The 2011 is a very light and fruity Riesling that lingers in the mouth. It would easily cellar for 5 years and for people that enjoy Riesling will find it quite delightful, and it shows off how well crafted these wines are considering how difficult the 2011 season was for growers in South Australia, with very heavy late season rain and heat affecting the grapes on the vine. If you do a web search you will find copious news reports regarding this strange La Nina season. $22 a bottle ($19 in a dozen).

Crabtree became fast favourites a year ago and continue to be so.

Feb 25 2012 - Waterfall Gully

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Parent Category: South Australia
Category: Adelaide
Created: Saturday, 25 February 2012 06:53

Saturday 25th February, I decided to test my fitness on the Waterfall Gully track to Mount Lofty at Cleland Conservation Park. I've been told that if you can complete it in 55 minutes, then you are ready for most tracks except the extreme.

So, I thought I'd give it a go to see how fast I could I achieve it in.

My rules were: Walking only, no stopping, must be able to hold a conversation when I reached the top.

I achieved a time of 44:29 from the cafe at the bottom of Waterfall Gully to the Mount Lofty lookout. I impressed myself with this as I'm told it is jogged in around 40 minutes.

A little about the track. Waterfall Gully is located 20 minutes from the CBD and is one of the most popular trails of the Cleland Conservation Park. With the popularity, parking becomes one of the most difficult parts of this track. The track is 3.9 kilometres long, and roughly 400 metres in elevation. The gradient ranges up to 22% and averages around 13%. The track is primarily artificial with some natural and winds up the valley through some beautiful foliage, and at times offers a great view of the city.

Why this track is so popular I couldn't tell you. In Cleland alone there are dozens of better trails, especially if you are in training. Still, for those that like only known quantities, this trail is pretty easy to remember and it has a status amongst the locals so you can compare results.

Here's the GPS data I collected from this trail.

Tasting KI - Kangaroo Island Spirits

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Parent Category: South Australia
Category: Kangaroo Island
Created: Thursday, 16 February 2012 05:54

Kangaroo Island Spirits is a boutique distillery located in Cygnet River, 10 minutes west of Kingscote. It is run by Jon & Sarah Lark, a beautiful couple with a passion for their craft.

We drove out to their distillery on the Playford Highway and seeing the Kis logo out front, we were surprised at how quickly we'd come upon it and pulled in. The car-park at the rear of the property is located next to the shed that is the distillery. It is reminiscent of a bootleggers – rust red tin, a small garden with a small unassuming glass door – rustic.

Inside the distillery is small but cosy with the service counter and a couple of tables and chairs. Sarah was behind the counter when we entered and greeted us warmly. The conversation was relaxed and natural, not forced at all like you get at some of the larger cellar doors. The variety of spirits on offer was larger than we thought it would be – 10 items.

Wild Gin, Vodka, Samphire Vodka, Chilli Vodka, Pinklily Strawberry - Strawberry and Vanilla Liqueur, Honey & Walnut Liqueur, Lime and Ginger Liqueur, Limoncello, Zenzirino - Ginger & Orange Liqueur, and Anisette.

All are distilled on site, and as many of the ingredients that can be sourced locally are such as the native Juniper berry (boobialla, Myoporum insulare) , Samphire, Wild Fennel and honey.

Each of these is individually hand-crafted by Jon & Sarah, with obvious passion. The small batch size allows for subtle variation in the final product, meaning that the complexity of flavours shifts. This is the artisan distillers way, and makes for a more delightful product. It is the same as tasting different vintages of a favoured wine, it will still be the wine you enjoy but there will be new inflections and accents to explore.

The tasting begins with the Wild Gin. It is a grape spirit gin, triple basket distilled, and combines native and Italian Juniper. A beautiful and fragrant Gin, smooth on the nose with a sweet almost citrus palate. It is by far one of the best Gin's I've had and is on par if not better, in my opinion, with Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray.

A great opening full of promise for what is to come.

Next up is KIS Vodka. Once again grape spirit and triple distilled but also employing charcoal filtering. It is a crisp and clean vodka that slides across the tongue so easily it would be criminal to add soda or any other flavours to it. Sarah tells me while I drink it that they had a group of Russian tourists pass through and taste the Vodka. Their verdict: Girl's Vodka. I take it that for Russians this Vodka is lighter, fruitier and more fragrant and lacks the bite of traditional Russian Vodkas. All I can say is, that's fine by me.

Sarah starts to tell me about the next drink, Samphire Infused Vodka. They came up with the idea after hearing of other grass infusions being created and thought they would give the local Samphire a go. Samphire is also known as Bearded Glasswort and is fleshy perennial with a high tolerance to saline and waterlogged environments. This Vodka is not very much to my liking, it is on the sour side of my palate with grass and salt coming through. Martini's spring to mind as I sip, and while I enjoy the Martini from a cultural perspective (it adds an extra layer of characterisation to James Bond), it has never been my drink. It is a unique and very interesting flavour and I recommend any spirit aficionados to sample. Who knows, it may become your favourite taste from KIS.

Sarah then offers us a brand new product that they are still developing their marketing for (It's great to hear of a producer completing the product prior to marketing it). This drink is called SLAP. Samphire, Lime, and Pepper vodka. The nose is not dissimilar to to the strait Samphire with a hint of citrus, but when that cool liquid strikes the tongue, flavour explodes. It is complex and tangy, the lime screaming it's presence, the grass of the Samphire becomes a welcome accompanier, and in the background is a bass-line laid down by pepper, perfectly balanced. It is enjoyable on say many tiers of taste and very satisfying. The after-taste is similar to an excellent Margarita mixed with an impeccable tequila. I would have gladly bought a bottle were it available.

Jon takes over our tasting as Sarah has a few errands to run, and they don't miss a beat, picking up the conversation readily.

KIS Lime & Ginger Liqueur is next up with zesty lime riding high and the ginger taking the low. An Excellent blend of flavour with both easily distinguishable, which I find a rare treat in liqueurs.

Limoncello starts with a fragrant lemon nose and fills the mouth with a robust bitter lemon, curling the tongue slightly.

The Zenzorino is beautiful. The nose is light, distracting you from the sharp ginger that flows across the tongue, and the orange vaporously filling the senses.

KIS Honey & Walnut is thick and heavy, almost gelatinous with the walnut following through and softening the palate.

When we come to the Anisette, I am quite hesitant. I do not enjoy Sambuca or liquorice and so with a pinch of salt I sip. It was surprisingly light on the aniseed and the KI Wild Fennel adds a distinct sour that overrides the Star Anise so that your mouth isn't left with a cloying taste.

Pinklily Strawberry, was very light and not at all sweet. I think the vanilla was a bit too heavy over the strawberry and as such came up lacking slightly.

To finish off, is the Chilli Vodka. I'm a big fan of chilli in Vodka having experimented with it in the early 90's and was quite looking forward to this. Would be a fire burning in the depths, or the graceful pepper that chilli can be when given the light touch. It was the latter. The chilli is fragrant, then it explodes across your mouth and is gone before you can feel the light burn.

Jon gives it a try and remarks on how light the Chilli is. It's part of the variation from small distilling and is dependant on the chilli that's in the bottle.

My experience with Kangaroo Island Spirits is one of the best I've had at a tasting. It is always a pleasure to spend time who are passionate about their craft as well as being good at it. While not all the flavours were to my taste, I can not fault the products themselves. With all tastings, every palate is different, and our experiences with other tastes of the same variety always colour our perceptions, but should never diminish the enjoyment of tasting something new.
I heartily recommend that anyone visiting Kangaroo Island take the time to drop by Cygnet River and visit with Jon and Sarah Lark. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

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