More...

That said, my notes from Leasingham suggest my favourite of the four wines was the Individual Vineyard Riesling.  However, Bin 7 Riesling is one I’ll be keeping my eye out for in bottle shops and on restaurant wine lists, as is the Magnus Cabernet which is as good as you’re likely to find at this price point. I thought it represented extremely good value for money.

Then, of course, there’s the 2006 Classic Clare Shiraz which made two wines in two days that we’d rated higher than the nameless but quite pleasant hundred-plus dollar wine previously mentioned which we tend to use as a $100-plus benchmark. Up to this moment the only other dry red in that price range we’ve been able to try was a Grange that’s just a little too good to be used as a punches above its weight benchmark.

Highly impressed as we left Leasingham and headed south in search of lunch. The next port of call was Kirrihill Wines, which houses Salt ‘n’ Vines, our preferred option though we hadn’t booked.

Kirrihill is an interesting operation, owned by the same interests as a company that manages a substantial chunk (1300 hectares) of South Australia’s vineyards which would, one suspects, have certain advantages when it comes to sourcing quality grapes for your wines.

The Kirrihill Cellar Door had an extremely informative attendant and, since we were her only customers for most of our stay there we benefited from detailed information about the wines on offer.

That was handy, since there were three ranges available for tasting, the $15 Companions (mostly blends of Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills fruit except for the 2008 Clare Valley Rose), the $20-$25 Single Vineyard Series and the $29 Kirrihill Estates 2004 Clare Valley Riesling, a five-star wine which appears in my notes with a single word (Buy) beside it. 

So we did, and there were half a dozen waiting for us at the Post Office when we got home.

Of the Companions Range, the 2008 CV/AH Riesling Pinot Gris, the 2006 CV/AH Cabernet Merlot and the 2007 AH/CV Tempranillo Garnacha were particularly memorable, though everything on offer was much more than merely acceptable.

At the price point the Single Vineyard Series were, I thought, particularly outstanding with my preference going to the 2008 Pinot Noir Rose Brut, the 2008 Watervale Riesling and the 2006 Clare Valley Baile An Gharrai Shiraz.

Having tasted virtually the entire range on offer the prospect of a break over lunch was particularly appealing so we headed upstairs to Salt ‘n’ Vines where my Trio of Game Meats and Madam’s Smoked Atlantic Salmon may well have gone down very nicely with a glass of something other than water but She was driving and I was temporarily tasted out.

Which was an important consideration because our next two stops in the Polish Hill River sub-region were places I was particularly looking forward to visiting.

With lunch out of the way (and exceptionally delish it was too) the plan was to backtrack to Wild Saffron, pick up something for dinner for (hopefully) the next two nights followed by a flying visit to base camp to put the tucker in the fridge before setting out to taste some more.

More...


© Ian Hughes 2012