On the Riesling Trail
Posted by Melissa on | July 7, 2008
Our new home is a farm just north of Clare. Mundawora Mews means ‘place of water’ - perhaps because of the high rainfall that we experience during our visit. We are staying in a converted stable located between the homestead and the chook shed and on the edge of an extensive vineyard.
We give the Corolla the day off and are taken for a walk around the back paddock by our friendly canine host - a brown border collie called Jackie - then climb onto the mountain bikes to investigate the famous Clare Valley Riesling trail. Once a railway line, this 25-kilometre trail is easy riding and passes soap factories, cellar doors, a Jesuit church, restaurants and cute B&B cottages. The valley was named by the Irish but it was Polish migrants who decided that vines should be planted to provide wine at communion. But it is not red wine but white - fabulous riesling - that they do best in the valley.
Over the next few days as the weather gets wetter and windier and I get a heavy head cold, we sample riesling at cellar doors and restaurants (including lunch at the highly-recommended Skillogalee) and in front of our cosy wood stove. The 2009 Tour de France is underway, so late-night vigils are organised to follow the progress of 190 bold men in lycra.
Parent update: After one litre of blood transfusions, Phil is discharged from the lovely Kununurra Hospital and flies to Darwin on the first leg of the journey home to Armidale.
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