Day 246 of 400: Rutherglen – Victoria, Australia

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We are off to the next wine tasting region today…an area renowned for its port called, Rutherglen. We are staying at a bed & breakfast tonight on a vineyard which should be fun, but first we are stopping at multiple wineries. Our first winery of the region was Buller (www.bullerwines.com.au). Luckily, the winemaker himself was in the tasting room pouring his wine. We had fun chatting with him about the various local varietals that we had never heard of and tasting his rare Tokay which was given 100 points by Robert Parker. It was definitely tasty but also had a big price-tag…it was our first time tasting a wine rated that high. We bought one of his other bottles and had him give us a wine map with places circled he thought were the best in town.

Our next stop was Campbells Winery (www.campbellswines.com.au) , established in 1870. They had many types of wines to taste and we had fun comparing and taking notes as to which ones we preferred. The tasting room itself was classy and it was fun to see all the 100s of barrels stacked on top of each other full of aging wine. Our favorite red was the “Brother’s Shiraz” but we bought their Chardonnay which was a bit out of character for us. We rarely like whites but this one was so amazingly good. It had the perfect balance of a buttery oak with a smooth finish.

Continuing down the wine trail, we came across All Saints (www.prbwines.com.au). The winery itself was on a beautiful piece of property with tall green trees making a perfect tunnel lining the street. There were tons of vines in all directions and a huge brick building in the center. We had a nice time with the partially retired man inside who obviously had a passion for wine. He had us taste the wine and talked about the differences in each. We really liked the Tokay but it was a bit on the expensive side so we opted for a bottle of our favorite red and were on our way.

We had been to quite a few wineries and tasted quite a lot of wine so decided it was time to find our B&B, The Still House (www.terravinia.com.au). After driving past it on a country road only once, we found the driveway and arrived at the large house amongst the vines and garden. The winemaker and his wife welcomed us and invited us into their home to have a chat and taste some of their wine. The couple was very nice and their home dated back to 1896. The kitchen area we were sitting in was made of brick and still had the original fire burning oven built into the wall. They explained that they only grow the grapes to give to larger producers to make wine, but that they keep a small amount of bottles made with only their grapes to last them the year. They complained of the vines being way to much work for retirement and that the B&B although also hard work helped bring in an additional monthly income. We munched on some nuts as we chatted until we saw it was getting late, so walked down to the small individual house where we were staying. It had a kitchenette, bathroom and large bed with bed warmers. We made an easy dinner with our left over groceries and watched a bit of TV before falling asleep.