Tag Archives: The South East of South Australia

A few days in the Coonawarra – Day two wine tastings and lunch

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This post follows on from A few days in the Coonawarra – Day one tastings and lunch

Eric’s Shed, the old tasting room – Brands Laira

We decided that a reward for looking after our grandchildren would be a second day’s wine tasting and lunch.

So after farewelling our daughter and family it was into the car for the 30 minute or so drive back to Penola. We made a quick stop to pick up a takeaway coffee from Bricks and Mortar which over our short stay in Mt Gambier had become a favourite.

Our second day in the Coonawarra was again with Coonawarra Experiences. When we arrived, Simon was there to greet us.  He had put our first day’s purchases in our apartment and with that, we were ready to start the day.

Our Sunday tastings were arranged to be a little less hectic than our first day to allow us to recharge from the couple of days looking after our wonderful grandchildren.

Our first stop was at Patrick’s , a second generation family winery whose grapes are sourced from within the Coonawarra and the nearby Wrattonbully region.  Continue reading →

A few days in the Coonawarra – getting there

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Our daughter’s involvement in a wedding in the South East of South Australia and our offer to look after her children while she and her husband were at the wedding and surrounding events gave us just the excuse to visit The Coonawarra, one of Australia’s most famous wine regions. In my case, it had been about a decade since I had visited and, for my favourite person, much longer.

The Coonawarra is about 400kms from Adelaide, making it about a 4 hour 30 trip assuming a short break somewhere like Tintinarra or Keith.

Tintinara

The road to Keith is well travelled as it’s the main highway to Melbourne, and just short of Keith, there is a turn-off for the Riddoch Highway that took us through Padthaway past Naracoorte and onto our destination of Penola in the heart of The Coonawarra.

The Coonawarra is a designated wine region that was hard fought for in the late 1990s, finally getting its own designation in 2003 as part of the Limestone Coast Region. There are just over 20 wineries in the region. It is a mix of the big corporates such as Penfolds, Treasury (owner of Wynns) and large family wine companies such as Casella (owner of Brands Laira) and Yalumba, along with smaller concerns such as Whistle Stop and Raidis.

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