Clare Valley - A Walk Through the Riesling Trail

Later that day, we proceeded to meet up with my third reader, Casey, in Cocolat.

The one and only infamous chocolate cafe in Adelaide.

me in front of cocolat


My favourite place in town, knowing me as a chocolate addict, Bryan did not hesitate to usher me to this place for our little meet up.

white chocolate cake


What nicer way to meet someone while eating in euphoria.

Now the joke was, when Casey first messaged me on email to ask to meet up for a drink, I quickly invited her to join us in our little plan to rent a car further up North this time into Clare Valley, a two hours ride from Adelaide.

She promptly replied and agreed. It was all very spontaneous and we were all very excited. I arranged us all to meet in Cocolat to discuss about our following day roadtrip to the wineries.

Little did I know and expect, when Casey showed up, I was shocked to no ends.

meeting up with casey


I honestly was expecting a girl!!

I meant, correct me if I was wrong, but, wasn't Casey supposed to be a girl's name? Wasn't it? o.O

me and casey


I further threaded on the thin friendship water by asking her, I mean him *cough*, if he was gay the next day.

Sorry darling!!! I just never met any guy who enjoys desserts as much as I do whose name's like a girl!


That night, Bryan bailed out on us to fulfill his work commitments (boo!) but left his credit card for us to rent a car from town. Casey picked up the car 8am in the morning and met up with Jessie, then they drove out to meet me at Ann's place (my couchsurfing's host who's living in the urban area).

toyota rented car


I woke up with a Toyota roaring at the front yard,

quickly I jumped up, put on my scarf, hat and jumper and quickly grabbed two apology cookies from the cookie jar in the kitchen which I was generously offered to abuse, dashed out and into the backseat before I fall asleep again.

trio in a car


Oh yea, halfway through the journey I took the ends of my long hair, and stuck it out at the front like a fringe.

fringe


I thought I looked rather cool.

It took us 2.5 hours to reach Clare valley, having made a slight detour, two U-turns, and god knows what other forsaken routes, but I had a list of wineries I wanted to visit in hand so the moment we hit the valley, we wasted no time hopping from one winery to the next hunting for the wine.

grape vine


Clare Valley was (is) famous for their Rieslings.

promo wine sign


However, I have always preferred sweet late harvest aka dessert wine rather than the orthodox preference most wine connoisseurs would go for.

late harvest riesling


Like this one for example.

letting us try expensive shiraz


We're at Jim Barry, a rather well known commercialized winery (like Jacob's Creek in Barossa Valley) in Clare, where this lady barrister showed us this rather highly concentrated red wine, 12 tonnes of grapes in a bottle.

At AUD195 per bottle (keep in mind whatever the exchange rate, it's almost double the price here in Malaysia, the usual wine rate at most wineries were going from AUD10-25 per bottle, occasional AUD35 for dessert wines),

expensive shiraz


I found the taste too intense for my liking.

When I say intense, I meant I could hardly swallow it.

casey and jessie in winery


more wine
Err... no thanks lady.


Clare Valley was even more beautiful than Barossa Valley. To start with, the valley itself was much bigger, and hence the land stretched far out into the horizon.

clare valley
Click here for wallpaper size.


trio roadtrip


We went down to the vineyard to take some shots.

vineyard


It might appeared sunny, but it was still pretty chilly back in August.

me at vineyard


We spent the entire day hopping from one winery to the next, visiting at least 10 that day, trying more wines than I ever had in my entire life.

wine barrel


It was like a marathon of drinking,

me and jessie


and drinking,

drinking wine


and drinking,

trio in winery clare valley


then cat hugging,

playing with kitty


jam tasting,

jams


and learning about how to make Olive Ice Cream,

olive oil ice cream


Took a break for lunch at a winery restaurant that's very grandmother house looking.

fine dining


Eating bread drizzled with wine,

bread


then more wine tasting,

knappstein wine


Back to drinking,

toasting


and finally, yes... drinking.

drunken alert


My god, I was sure I drank more than 5 dozen glasses of wine that day. I could be wrong, but heck, it was insane, I was tipsy, singing, dancing, prancing all the way with Jessie. And guess what, Casey, drank as much as I have, was still sober as hell, and even managed to drove us safely back to Adelaide.

o.O

Back in Adelaide, we went shopping for a sleeping air mattress for me to sleep over at Jessie's place.

In Harvey Norman, I spotted a HUGE 6-men tent!

tent


Right! I'm going camping this April in the vineyards from Melbourne to South Australia, who's coming with me!

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17 kissed Nicole

  1. Wow, that tent is definitely super-huge!

    And those desserts...I don't dare look at them again, or I'll probably run out of saliva :P (I love white chocolate)

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  2. What a cute cat! Nice colour too. Gimme gimme!

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  3. Casey is a guy's name! Cassie is a gal's name

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  4. Another great coverage! Nicole, I was wondering, will you ever get drunk? Just kidding. Enjoy your trip! Where next?

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  5. Oh Gosh! Sorry, missed that final paragraph in your blog :-) Let's go camping!

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  6. Great story...great photos!! Love it.. Thank you.. ;-)

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  7. awwwwoooohhhh that's what you meant by you thought it was a girl's name. I thought it was spelt as KC.. lol. good meeting up with you again babe.till the next one :)

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  8. Didn't know u're in Adelaide.I am in Adelaide too.... WIII~~~ Pretty hot these few days!!!

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  9. Hi Nicole, I'm from Adelaide. Drop by here once in a while.
    Actually there's another small chocolate cafe tucked in at one of the alleys off rundle street. They don't have as many choices as Cocolat, but whatever they've sure beats Cocolat BY A ZILLION MILES. The name of that cafe is Chocolate Bean, a very artsy decor for ground floor and veeery romantic for the upper floor. If you ever come by here next time, do try to go there and taste their "Death by Chocolate" cake. The chocolate-ness of it will send you to the moon, and I'm not exeggerating at all.Its taste justifies its name.
    Terribly sorry for not reading your blog earlier...

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  10. nicole. loving your rainbow-coloured scarf!!~

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  11. Great trip again! ahww... wanna follow too.. :D
    Btw, love your colourful scarf.. :D

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  12. WP: run like the wind, coz those damn chocolate smell fly fast. lol

    fae: she is isn't she? :D

    Geznat: oooooo.. i seeeee

    nothingman: of course i do.

    cath: thanks :)

    linora: yea. lol. nice meeting u that day

    myst3: me going back there this april ^^

    CW: i tried that before. didn't take any photo there. love the place :D I'm like a chocolate hunter in Australia, lol

    samantha and curryegg: thanks, but i borrowed it from my couchsurfing host Anne :p

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  13. hi nicole..

    how long will be the camping journey be?

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  14. icic..so this is how u guys met..LOL

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  15. icic..so this is how u guys met...LOL

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  16. omg - did u try the jim barry lavender hills wine? thats my fave!

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  17. The camping idea sound interesting. It is just that I have to work :(

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