Having collected the luggage we headed over to the hire car counter to claim the vehicle. Nothing remarkable in that department, but, having been given the details of existing marks and dents we found a couple more. Back, enter the details, so we didn't get the blame, back out and Houston, we have a problem. Not a significant problem, but something that needed to be checked out.
We'd backed out of the parking space when the windscreen wipers flashed to and fro. Turned to the left, progressed to the point where we could turn and exit, and it happened again. Turn right instead of left, loop around and go back to where we started. There it is another couple of times. Faced with ten days' intermittent flicking something needed to be investigated and I was sent off to arrange a human diagnosis.
That, when it arrived, was brief, brisk and to the point, one of those multitudinous little tweaks you pick up on when you buy a new car and gradually familiarize yourself with the features, more than likely learning as you went along.
Here, it seemed, we had someone returning the car through very light drizzle who'd set the wipers to a particular rhythm and left things that way when the ignition was switched off. With the issue fixed we were off to Richmond with the possibility of a stop at a winery if The Driver was agreeable.
We'd just established that she was when we reached the turn that would take us in the right direction, but the road junction didn't permit a right hand turn, so it was a case of off down the road, crack a U-ie, and head back.
That brought us into the Coal Valley, one of the earliest areas used by the first settlers outside of Hobart, named, predictably, for abundant supplies of coal in the area. The first settlers engaged in a mixture of pastoral and agricultural activities, though today it is arguably best known as a source of premium cool climate grapes, which was one of the things that had brought us into the area.
We passed a couple of wineries between that junction and Richmond, all of which seemed to be open, but this time around I was only interested in visiting a couple of places. Puddleduck Vineyard
had character and was a location that would keep The Driver happy in Photographer mode while I did the tasting and spitting.
Given the setting, complete with baby ducks in the puddle the photographic interest was there, and in the Tasting Room the wines were well worth further consideration. Puddleduck wines aren’t easy to find, with sales limited to the cellar door and online shopping, which is hardly surprising given the size of the operation. With single hectares of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc and three-quarters of a hectare of Chardonnay and Riesling, it’s a 3.5 hectare vineyard with grapes sourced from elsewhere to pad out the volume.