As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we only have the hire car for 2 days and have planned each day to be quite busy. We will have a quiet day of “nothing” on Sunday.
After breakfast, we drove 40 minutes or so via the North Expressway to Gawler, where there is an information centre where I planned on seeing what attractions I may have missed in my research. We arived just before 9:00am only to find that the centre was not open until 10:00. :(. We decided not to hang around but continue the 30kms onto to Nuriootpa and visit Maggie Beer’s Farm for morning tea. We have been “Maggie fans” for ages and have watched her “The Cook and The Chef” show many times over, so it was fun seeing the place where it was filmed.
We had a lovely morning tea of tea/coffee, carrot cake and apple cake looking over the lake. Looking around the shop I like the look of aparticular jar of preserve. It is Spiced Tomato,Cornichon & Roasted Garlic. I spoke to the girl at the counter ( who I am pretty sure was Maggie Beer’s daughter Elli ) and asked if I was correct in thinking it would be good with cheese or on hot roast lamb or beef. She nodded and said she likes it on cheese and toasted :). I will wait until we get home to open it as I don’t want to risk it spilling all through my luggage.
After Maggie Beer’s, it was on to Seppeltsfield. We had been told to visit here by a number of friends and we were not disapointed.
Approaching the estate on Seppeltsfield Road, you are greeted by over 5kms of date palm lined trees. I could not find any mention at the estate as to the significance of them, but I did find this
The history ,architecture and landscaping of the place is amazing. Having been to Tuscany, I can honestly say that it is up there with the best.
There was of course lots of information about the wines but sadly not a huge amont about the estate iteslf. There were some photos in the gallery which did have some stories attached, but I was hoping for more, and was surprised that there was not a gift shop. . I would have loved a coffee table book of the estate.
We wandered around looking at the bulidings before moving onto Tanunda to visit the Barossa Information Centre and lunch. The main street of Tanundah was very busy and I eneded up having to park at the street behind the main street and walk through an arcade and across the road to the information centre.
At the information centre I noticed a flyer for the Carl Lindner Collection of Jaguars. I noticed it because I had seen a plaque at Seppeltsfield at the door to the Cellar Door in memeory of Carl Lindner thanking him for all he meant to Seppeltsfield. So I guessed he was of some importance.
We decided it was time for lunch and saw a bar and grill across the road from the information centre. Unfortunately we did not stay as the menu was all for big full meals ( Steak, Schnitzels etc) with no salads other than a garden side salad. Neither of us wanted a big lunch so we went back to the information centre for some recommendations. We were directed to a cafe a couple of doors down, but nothing grabbed our attention. It was a vegetarian restaraunt so lots of grains and tofu.
We decided to keep going on to our next stop which was to be Penfolds. As we drove around the block to get back onto the main road, I saw a large pub, ( which actually turned out to be a Community Club with a rich history of its own) we thought surely they might have some lighter lunch options. They did 🙂 and we both got a lovely big salad. Mick had Caesar and I had a Mexican Chicken Salad. I could not finish all of mine it was so big!
I was in this dining room that we noticed an alcove with a table and a sign saying “Carl’s Corner”. Hmmm. wonder who on earth this “Carl” guy was??
After lunch the next stop was actually a small winery called Kellermeister Wines. Although we do not drink much at all now, I did want to buy a couple of bottles of their “Sable“
Sable is a delicous blend of Tanwy Port, Chocolate and Brandy. I used to have a friend who would bring bottles back on any trip to Adelaide and I had always loved it. As Kellermeister is a smaller winery, Sable is not available anywhere except at the winery or online. I asked for a taste to confirm it was as good as I remembered…It was!! So buying some while here it is a must.. I reckon 2 bottles will last me at least a year or so.
Back on the road again, and we headed back down the through the Adelaide Hills to Penfolds. Of course Penfolds is most famous for its “Grange” wine and at the cellar door they have a display of every Grange bottle since the early 1950’s.
The whole estate is impressive (not as impressive as Seppeltsfield) with buildings dating back to the mid 1800’s. The main Cellar Door building was redeveloped in the early 2000’s.
Again though I was disapointed that there was not a Gift Shop with souveniers.
From Penfolds when drove the car back to the airport to drop it off and then catch the bus back to the city. We had no issues dropping back the car and there was bus waiting at the bus stop when we got there. We asked the driver how long it was until he left and he said two minutes.
The airpot is a short bus trip back to the city. We got off at our stop at dropped into Coles and picked up some nice rissoles and a satchet of gravy to go with our leftover veges we had bought from the markets.
We relaxed and watched TV for a bit and were in bed early. We had a couple of jam packed busy days and will be thankful for a quiet day tomorrow.
Oh.. I also “googled” Carl Lindner and he was indeed a noteable Barossa citizen.
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