Granty, having declared himself the designated driver, split his time between axe-inspection and the free-flowing conversation in the tasting area while the rest of us set about having a taste as Emma kept us entertained.
There's a strong political flavour to the reds on offer - Rep Red, Black Rod Shiraz, Upper House Cabernet Sauvignon, for example - and the wines aren't too shabby at all. In some circumstances you'd look at this sort of labelling and suspect that it's being used to mask the odd shortcoming in the wines, but everything I sampled was very good indeed.
Apart from the Upper House Cabernet and Black Rod Shiraz I ended up taking with me, I was particularly taken by the Rep Red, a Cabernet Shiraz blend that was labelled Republic Red until someone pointed out that 'Republic' was now a trademark and consequently unable to be used.
Under other circumstances and more than four-and-a-bit hours' sleep I'd be much more lyrical about what I'd sampled, since the wines were at the very least comparable to what I'd sampled the day before, but I dutifully filled out the form to add myself to their mailing list and look forward to sampling the range at my leisure in the Little House of Concrete.
We were back in the car heading past the Ballandean Tavern around eleven forty-five, which could have been an appropriate time-slot for lunch, but decided that if we headed to Symphony Hill first, we'd be able to head straight north after lunch.
On arriving, I found that expectations of picpoul, tannat and mondeuse (trial plantings referenced by Halliday) were wide of the mark, though what was on offer proved very tasty indeed.
Again, everything offered plenty of character in the bouquet department and the Wild Child Viognier and Tempranillo were particularly memorable when the taste buds came into play.
It was, however, one of those cases where a pen and some notes would have been a very good idea, and I really need to do something about developing a more reliable method of keeping track of my vinous recollections....
It was a case of three out of three when it came to adding the name to the mailing list, and I'll hopefully be ordering a subset of the range that will allow a closer examination....
Lunch at the Ballandean Tavern was a direct contrast to the previous day's effort in more ways than one. Where Kooroomba offered serious food at serious prices, the Ballandean offerings were substantial repasts at very reasonable rates.
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