McLaren Vale: Cleanskin

Who says wine and ice don't mix?




In McLaren Vale, you will come to a rosey winery called Rosemount, one of the most popular wineries you'll find in this region.










Rosemount has this sparkling sweet delight called O.




It comes with its own O glass where you can fill it with crushed ice (preferably) and is one of the easiest wine you'll ever drink.

Light. Sweet. Bubbly. And Fun.




It only cost AUD10 but I didn't have enough luggage space so I had the forgo the purchase. T_T


Anyway, back to the beginning of my trip.




On the day of my graduation, I met Max, a professor from University of South Australia. He invited me to dinner that night to talk more about my profession (blogger?) and wanted to conduct an interview with me for his radio channel in Adelaide.


Max


Over our chat, he found out that I was to be in Adelaide only for a few days, mainly just to attend my graduation and I would be on my way for the next few weeks traveling further down south.

He also learnt that I wanted to do a roadtrip down to McLaren Vale - one of the three wine country I have not visited in South Australia state. The other two being Clare Valley and Barossa Valley.




So spontaneously, as always, he invited his friend and we all drove down to McLaren Vale the next day.




Such was Australian hospitality. ;) (Thanks Max!)








A very old small Methodist church we passed by on the way


Our first stop over was a cute little winery called Chapel Hill (located at one of the northest part of McLaren Vale).




This house was a ironic little thing because Chapel Hill was really, a Chapel.







Right. So they turned a holy place into a winery. Sweet.





Check out their refinery!


It was also here in Chapel Hill that I learnt about the existence of Cleanskin wine.




Max explained to me that Cleanskin were actually label-less wine that's sold at a cheaper price than its label counterpart.

Why? Because there are simply wineries out there who tend to produce too much wine and in order to prevent selling them off at discounted price which would "lower the value" of their brands, they bottled them up and sell them off as Cleanskin.


Rosemount Cleanskins


Apparently, this is also a very Australian thing.

Cleanskin is very bit the same as a labeled wine,




so if you know where to look for (particularly at the wineries itself) and when, you'll be able to buy really good wine of your favourite winery at a dirt cheap price.




(Once they go into wine shop, you'll never really know which winery they come from, apart from the region it's produced)


Now you learn something. *wink*


We stumbled into Oscars while scouting around for food.
(Click on link to view my food blog review)




Now Oscars has to be one of the nicest Italian restaurants/bars I've ever been in my life. Situated in a wine country, I couldn't ask for a better ambiance and environment!

And the pizza was just to die for!







Later we stopped by a few more wineries for more wine tasting and cam whoring sessions.




The more wine we took, the funkier we got.




"Max, stop harassing the bird."



Couldn't remember which FINE house-looking winery is this. But LOVE the setting!


We drove passed rows of grape vines and realised that we were all alone in the area, with no one around.




So we did the only thing anyone would have done if they were in our position.

.
.
.

We got out the car and started plucking the grapes.







Bunch and bunch of beautiful tiny grapes~!!!!










So many of them!




Such abundance!




Rows after rows.

="


Even Max's friend was going at it!













It was already early April so most of the grapes were going to drop off respective their vines. Some were beginning to shrivel up.




Natural RAISINS!


Man they're sweet!


We gathered just about enough, had enough fun, before deciding to climbed back into the car and silently drove off.





"Can someone say fruitful event?"


Don't worry. Those growers have more than enough to share a few bunch with us.


Later driving around McLaren Vale, we came to what has to be the valley's prettiest winery.




Hugh Hamilton.





When you drive up to the winery from the entrance, you'll be parking in front of a row of olive trees.




Now I've never seen olive trees up close before, so it was a rather interesting point of fact for me.


Raw green olives.


I did learn that, no matter raw or ripe, NEVER attempt to eat an olive straight out from a tree!




They tasted foul!!! Bitter right down to the pit of your stomach!


Back to the beauty of Hugh Hamilton.




Love the design. Love the vineyard.







Love the panoramic view of the vineyard from the circular winery.




Love the grape vines hanging from the roof.




Love the fact that they used sheep as their mascot.




Or the fact that they sold oyster knife?




But mainly, love their sense of humor.




Sheep Dip! Haha!!

(If you don't know what Sheep Dip is? Google it up)