12 May 2010

Kilikanoon: Week One of My Australian Adventure

The destination is, of course, the glorious Clare Valley, my particular favorite in Australian wine country. I am working at Kilikanoon, my dream job, for the week. Now, keep in mind, I say that it's my dream job, but so far the description is “pulling hoses around the cellar.” So we'll see how hard Kevin Mitchell has me working and how much dirt gets under my nails this week! I'll keep you in the loop.

So far, I've just gotten settled and am starting this morning at the winery. I'm about to take off for it from my beautiful bed and breakfast, Riesling Country Cottages. It is a lovely pocket of 2 cottages next to a farm house right here on the Riesling trail in Clare Valley. The view here is remarkable—the name of our place is Mount Rufus, named for the view of the mt. just outside our back porch on the other side of the hills full of sheep grazing. We've enjoyed a morning of watching scissortails flying all about the back, keeping guard over a nest on the back of the house. We're already at home here, and are grateful to the owners for a great dinner recommendation last night.

We ate at Clare Asian Cuisine in the small downtown of Clare. It was absolutely wonderful. My dinner of a Seafood salad (with scallops, prawns, squid, and giant mussels) with cabbage and chilies along with Tom Yum Goong, shrimp with chilies, lemongrass, and mushrooms, was fantastic, and husband Ian loved his lamb mansala curry—he couldn't resist getting lamb as soon as he could.

And my first wine I ordered here? Oh, you KNOW it was sparkling red! I am so predictable! Next on the list is sparkling Riesling. Pretend you're surprised. One of the things I love here is that the local restaurants are loaded with wines from the area on their lists. There are so many to choose from, you don't miss the lack of international selections. My sparkling last night was Cabernet, Merlot, and Shiraz from a vineyard I'd never been to. Well, off to work! Wish me luck as I bring a little Georgia style to a great Aussie operation.

2 comments:

scubadivider said...

I wish that I had the legal authority to require that you bring home some of those sparkling reds just for me!

Get Cultured said...

You lucky dog! Not really; I know you've worked hard for this, and I am so glad you are getting this once in a lifetime experience! Hope it's a blast!