Hic

Excellent - at the ripe old age of ......... yes well ahem, lets start that again shall we.......

Excellent - after many years have finally discovered a wine that we both quite like and actually felt we could drink half a glass of with dinner. Of course there is a catch - its from a nice little vineyard in Australia and you can't get it in the UK!!!

Ha Ha.

Very nice man there helped us find one that didn't make me shudder. Finally discovered the cause of my inability to like wine - won't tell you the cost of the wine that he found that I could actually drink. Needless to say even if we could have got it at home we'd have needed a bank loan.

Still, am now fully conversant in tannin, legs, aging, plum, raspberry tones, pepper, oak barrels, size of bubbles (in a sparkling Shriaz of all things...) etc. I think the man took pity on us as he gave us a cool free tour of the winery as well.

Got back to apartment and had steak, blue cheese and red wine for dinner. Wow - how our taste buds are maturing. Don't panic though - we topped it off with a nice glass of vintage Ribena :)

We had plans to go to ANSTA today - nuclear medical facility south of Sydney, it was raining again, it was fully booked though and is until two weeks time so never mind. Instead headed off to Hunter Valley. Went round Hunter Valley Gardens and then found very nice chocolate shop and very nice cheese shop which also sold Gelato - oooops, double scoop rum n raisin for Martyn and single scoop chocolate for Kay.

Completely mucked up taste buds with ice cream and then off to wineries (although some would say given our palates the ice cream might have helped). Tried three wines in first place. Revolting. Had to hide behind Martyn as I was in fear of grossly offending the people who worked there with my shivers and gurning impressions. On to next winery. Not so sure about the first three there either but now knew enough to honestly be able to say they were much nicer than the previous three. Actually asked about shipping some of the one we liked home - yes it was that nice. Not as nice as the shipping price required though.

So we shall continue on and remember our one taste of wine we actually liked. Anyone for a quick tipple of vintage Ribena?