5 of us checked into Mollydooker yesterday for the wine tour, tasting & light lunch. We couldn't have asked for a warmer welcome from our hosts who were happy to provide closed shoes to a couple of us who hadn't realised we would need them.
Andrew was our guide for the day,and he spent a couple of hours with us first taking us down to the Shiraz vines to explain the Mollydooker philosophy, & the use of water control to achieve a desirably consistent result for the 'drinker' each year. The approach is both very interesting and obvious when you see the wines stacked up against the neighbouring properties vines.
The resulting wines are fruit driven drink now lusciousness. Whether or not you think they are the types of wines to put in the cellar is up to the taster, but Sparky doesn't really recommend it anyway. He reckons wine should be drunk as soon as it comes available, so I'm likely to put other wines in the cellar.
So, based on that I bought the sparkling Shiraz & the sparkling Verdhelo that I think will drink perfectly over xmas. I went for the midweight Blue Eyed Boy to do a reality check of my palate in a couple of weeks.
So after the tour, we were led back to the cellar door and guided through a Shiraz flight tasting including the Velvet, which we were then given to take into lunch. A beautiful spread of local fresh produce ( cheeses, chicken sausage, smoked salmon, home made bread, lettuces, tomatoes, cucumber, roast beef, chutney, Mayo) welcomed us which we grazed on for a good couple of hours.
Andrew kept us company & in generous supply of wines to taste & enjoy. He also continued to chat to us & talk about the winery too. We were also privileged to be joined by Sparky, red lipped from his morning of 'weight' testing , and ready to chat about their philosophy & methods.
A spectacular day was had by our little group, & we left very content & full of talk about the Aussie wine industry & its future & mostly just how much we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of these gorgeous people.
At $50 a head everyone at Mollydooier who assisted in making our day so enjoyable yesterday gets 5 stars. A fantastic team effort with a special thank you to Andrew (& Sparky for coming to say 'Hey'). read more