Culture of the green (trees and forests) and red (wine of course) kind

 Thursday 8 April

Careful planning for a wine tour is underway today. Flashman is considering spitting as he suspects Lady P will try and make him do 14 wineries just as punishment. He’s too clever for her!! Not to be though. Lady P the ever unpredictable tour guide took us to the National Arboretum first thing for a walk of 3,500 steps and 200m up a hill. It was a really great place and well worth a visit. On the 250 hectares of land destroyed in both the 2001 and 2003 catastrophic Canberra bush fire, they have planted 49 different forest types representing the rare and endangered and iconic forests of the world; interspersed this with stunning outdoor sculptures and absolutely amazing structures. We spent two hours there but could have spent half a day easily. After that, we headed for Clonakilla Winery, where we had a tasting of two whites and three reds. It is interesting to note that because of the 2019/20 summer bush fires and the resultant smoke taint, there is no local 2020 vintage. They have, however, shipped grapes from South Australia and the Yarra Valley to ‘make’ a vintage of Riesling and Viognier. I am in two minds about this. Many of the great wines are multi regional blends and we know that some of the big Hunter Valley wineries manufacture a product called wine from McLaren Vale grapes, so should it be about terroir (yes, of course as the French would say) or is it about what tastes good (yes, of course say the 30 somethings). What to do? Taste the lot says Flashy. We did and no spitting either! Their Estate Shiraz was purchased (94pts), as was the Viognier (delicious and with grapes from Hill-Smith in the Eden Valley) and a biggy, the $110 bottle of Shiraz Viognier. More later on why some blend or co-ferment a white wine grape (Viognier) with a classic red like Shiraz. Not to bore you, but it’s bloody delicious. Lady P sets up a bet with the young handsome cellar door operator, Harry, that Viognier will be the next ‘flavour’ of the decade and he is half in agreeance excepting it doesn’t handle drought well and requires a bit of maintenance, he feels it may be a Fiano so the bets are on and we will communicate in 3 -5 years. So then off we went to Gundaroo. Don’t you just love all the town names in the ACT/NSW? Here we enter the Gundog Estate Winery cellar door. Gundog, as many of you know, is a good Hunter Valley winery. Well, they have established a winery using Gundaroo grown grapes, Hilltops (Young NSW) and also sell Hunter and Victorian wines made by them. We opted for only the estate grown wines and all they had left were the shiraz wines. Flashy was smiling. The tasting pours by a lovely woman from Atlanta, Georgia were generous. The big surprise for the day was the food. We ordered three share plates of potato tortellini filled with almond ricotta, dressed with beurre noisette, muscatels and shaved almonds. A goat kofta with smoked yoghurt, olive oil and hummous and salmon rillettes with fried sourdough and horseradish. These dishes were superb. Rick Stein at Bannisters go hang your head in shame and the same goes for Ben Shewry’s Attica Summer Camp. Not a patch on these dishes by some unknown, hard working chef. Flashy took notes and pictures. We departed with a bottle of the Estate Shiraz for tonight’s BBQ at the Loft. On the way out we walked the village and guess what? The pub was open. Flashy needed some rehydration, so a middy of Reschs did the job. Home at last to our warm loft and a GnT on the east facing balcony and a gourmet BBQ awaits as chef preps the chicken thighs.