by Allan Taylor

Created on: January 30, 2009

McLaren Vale region wineries, South Australia

A visit to Australia should always include a winery tour. This is easily done from the state capitals Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Winery tours are also a favorite pastime of the Aussies, who enjoy excursions into the countryside to sample the local produce, often taking overseas visitors with them.

I live in Adelaide, South Australia, which is a great place to live because we have a wonderful Mediterranean climate. It is always warm and usually we have cloudless days. We enjoy going to the beach or having barbecues with our friends quaffing lots of wine of good quality. South Australia produces more wine than any other state, from about seven distinctive regions.

Recently I went on a day tour from Adelaide to visit four wineries in the McLaren Vale region with a lunch stop at the Victor Hotel in Victor Harbor located on the southern ocean coast. What I like about such organized tours is that it is pot luck who you travel with. Always I find one or two, or more, fellow travelers with whom I might have some rapport and perhaps develop a new friendship, or even a relationship. Also, you don't have to drive your car which is a bonus and less of a worry.

Our first stop was the Olive Groves Winery in McLaren Vale. Let me explain that you could go on ten winery tours in McLaren Vale and never go to the same winery twice and always have an enjoyable time.

I was very impressed with the Olive Groves Winery which is part of Lloyd Brothers Wine and Olive Company.. It probably has more acreage growing olives than grapes. It has a prosperous business selling a wide range of olive products plus specialty wines. The owners welcomed all 25 of us to taste their produce. Free wine tasting is the custom in South Australia (you get a small portion to taste), or if you need more then you can buy a glass at A$4.50 for whites or A$5.00 reds, of good quality, or pay more for specialty wines if desired. It is a good system.

At first I tried tasting the half dozen varieties of olive oil into which one dibbles bread portions, Wow, I thought, and absorbed their advertising info about it all, .....next I moved onto the various olive based sauces... Wow again... why don't I make some of these delicacies myself, I thought?

After that I went to the wine tasting bar and started with their chardonnay, then the rose, and finally the reds, as one is supposed to do. Excellent! I could have stayed there all day in air-conditioned comfort.

The Lloyd

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