Savouring South Australian Wine in San Francisco

For one of us South Australia is home. No not where we live now but where we grew up and where the heart is. So to get an invite to go listen to a seminar and taste the latest wines from what one of us considers the wine capitol of the world was too bloody good to miss.

Savour South Australia (yes Americans, savour has a u in it in actual English) was held at One Market Restaurants conference room in San Francisco (hey everyone, lets do one in Monterey) which unfortunately means million dollar parking fee's, but we knew it would be worth it.

Thanks to Allson for taking great care of us getting us in the front row for the seminar. While the moderator yank had a hard time remembering the pretty presenters name (bad form mate) the lovely Jennifer from McLaren Vale and James from Barossa Valley did a fantastic job of going into some fascinating detail of their respective regions. Not too nerdy but a great balance of nerdy and fun facts. While talking about the respective areas we tasted along with some truly impressive wines. These wines are top class and would stand against any in the world.

Now you may say, oh sure Adelaide boy you are a bit biased. While that may have some merit I stand by the statement. I can name off a dozen that will substantiate the claim.
South Australia has 18 wine regions. The most well known being Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. Don't let that lead you to believe that that is where the good stuff come from. There are world quality wines coming from most of them. With areas like Coonawarra, Clare Valley, Eden Valley and the Adelaide Hills just to name a few, there is no shortage of top drops here.

During the seminar there were 12 wines to talk about and taste and there were some beauties to look forward to at the tasting. Right out of the gate the first wine was a cracker. The Henschke 2015 Julius Riesling from Eden Valley. We love a good Rizza and this was a beaut.

Look not a disappointing wine in the bunch  but including the wine #1 Henschke here are a few that really captured our taste buds.
#3 Cirillo Estate 1850 Grenache 2010 - Barossa Valley
#7 Penfolds St Henri 2012 - South Australia
#8 Kay Brothers Block 6 Shiraz 2011 - McLaren Vale
#9 Langmeil Freedom 1843 Shiraz 2013 - Barossa Valley
#10 Torbreck Run Rig 2012 - Barossa Valley

They call Australia a new world wine region but here we tasted wines from vines that are up to 173 years old. With other wines made from vines that are 150 and 165 years old. There is a saying that Old vines are not good because they are old but are old because they are good. These wines were / are simply stunning!
The seminar was an eye opener even though we drink a lot of Aussie wine, to have them lined up all in a row was to give one a new appreciation of what wonderful wine comes from this part of the world.

Next up was the general tasting and there are some pluses and minuses here. The plus is there were a few winemakers there to represent their wine. The minus was there were only a few winemakers there to represent their wine.

Another plus the hors d'oeuvres were delicious and they kept coming long enough and the only complaint being that we ran out of time to get to all the wine tables.

Look there are some seriously great wines coming out of South Australia and we love drinking them and telling anyone who will listen about them. We are even looking into doing a WineWalkabout South Aussie wine tasting in the Monterey area if we can get a wine maker interested in sharing their wines. This is because we truly believe that the American market is missing out and once exposed they will be fans for life.


Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout