Nikki at RedHeads - day 3

Crunch day, Hoffy, spiders and similar

Not such a good start to the day when the neighbour manages to reverse into my hire car ... despite the road being around 15 metres wide! We've all done it ... or nearly I suppose, but ...

Not a good start to the day ... Noël across the way manages to
reverse at speed across the 15 metre road into my hire car!

On arrival at RedHeads, met Hoffy, aka Adrian Hoffman, provider of dark delicious Barossa Cabernet. Unfortunately not quite as much dark, delicious Cabernet as Dan had hoped for – .7 tonnes rather than the usual 3 tonnes. That was due to bit of trouble with frost early on in the season. It's a tough year for growers (even worse in parts of the McLaren where lack of water meant some of the vines went on strike, that is they closed down and the fruit shrivelled up), and for Dan. He'll be scouting around for some top quality Cabernet grapes now.

Hoffy's lovely Cabernet grapes - and hopefully a lovely pic of Hoffy to come

A good two hour warm up with plunging, a little bit by (washed!) foot when the going was really tough, hence the red sock look!

Good colour - must be from the last vat of wonderfully dark Durif.
Not sure it shows off my legs to the best advantage

Met a white spider – didn't risk it and I'm afraid I squashed it! That was just the first of the wildlife for the day. Alpacas, big sheep (were they really, very long legs!) and a few bobbing kangaroos amongst the vines.

This sheep has particularly long legs - cross-breeding
with alpacas, we reckoned. Fluffy then!

On the hunt for good Cabernet, Dan and I took off for the edges of Eden Valley to John Erkhart's vineyard. He was a man full of interesting tales. His vineyards are in a marginal area – the crop is certainly not guaranteed every year, but when it does succeed, well, it's great stuff.

John Erkhart explaining the intricacies of his vineyard -
winds, frost, heat and lovely tiny berries

The lovely, small Cabernet berries at Erkharts promised well -
but won't be ready for harvest for another 2-3 weeks

We had another important vineyard stop on the way back – to Robin Day's (Aussie guy, not the former presenter!) vineyards. It's quite an impressive array of largely Italian grapes – Garganega, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and, not Italian at all but Georgian, Saperavi! It was quite an array we tested for their sugar level with the refractometer!

Garganega grapes come in long, spaced-out bunches

Nebbiolo bunches were really tightly packed in

Dan looking through the refractometer,
checking out what Baume each variety had reached

Interesting day ... and less sticky!