Pyrenees Wine

On Saturday, Elissa had a wedding to cater so was out of action all day. Jason, Nicola and I took ourselves off to the Pyrenees region to sample some wines from an area which I’ve never been to before, and Jason hasn’t seen for nigh on twenty years. It’s a bit of a drive from Castlemaine, but as most wineries don’t open up much before eleven o’clock, we were still able to have a leisurely breakfast at home before setting out just before ten.

It was a good job we did set out early, however, as we got lost on the way! Relying on satellite directions from “Satty” on the mobile phone only works as long as you have a mobile connection, and out in the wopwops of Victoria it isn’t the most reliable, once you get between towns. Fortunately we were able to correct our mistake fairly quickly, and headed up to the first winery, Redbank. There we tasted various wines, whites, reds and rosés. Unfortunately they’d chilled all their wines to within an inch of their lives, including the reds, so tasting was a trial as I tried to warm them up sufficiently in my hands and swirling the glass. I’m sure they make good wines but you’d never know from this tasting.

At the next vineyard, Dalwhinnie, we again tasted but didn’t buy as we were travelling, and we’d have to carry it around with us. Dalwhinnie have a very good reputation for their reds and Jason bought a bottle of their premium shiraz to lay away and ignore for 15 years or so.

Equus at Moonambel is a relative newcomer, opened about four years ago. You wouldn’t know it from the state of their organisation, though – you’d think they’d opened yesterday! We managed to get a tasting, and decided to buy some wine for consumption at Jason’s birthday party tomorrow. They hadn’t got around to it labelling yet, so the owner happily went and got some bottles and stuck the labels on in front of us which is frankly an unprofessional, and somewhat dubious, practice. He was selling it at $14 a bottle though.

Our final stop of the day was our lunch venue, Blue Pyrenees winery. We’d booked for one o’clock and arrived just in time, so decided to take lunch first and taste afterwards. Lunch was a platter of meats, cheeses, pickles etc, which we washed down with the local beer in a leisurely fashion.

Our tastebuds were pretty exhausted by then so we did a quick tasting and were on our way back to Castlemaine.