Day 4 - First adventure on the wine route

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Mansfield - Delatite Winery - Mansfield  25km

When we first started planning this trip, we had a bouquet of ideas we thought could be worthy of becoming a bit of a theme or a creative outlet. Given our close proximity to the wine industry and the many beautiful connections we share with the winemaking community, one of us thought "how about we cycle through as many Australian wine regions as we can?". I know, this sounds like a very good idea... at first. But there are 65 (!) designated wine regions on this continent, 20 of them in the state of Victoria alone, you get dizzy looking at the map even without drinking any wine. 



But there's nothing like a challenge, especially if it involves tasting and drinking wine. So today, we ticked off the first of the 65 Aussie wine regions, the Upper Goulburn.  We may have underestimated the fact that a winery rarely finds itself right next to the visitor's centre.  And usually there is a hill involved. 

The Delatite Winery is a casual 10km pedal out of Mansfield, on the road to Mount Buller. The views from the top notch architecturally designed Cellar Door (reopened in 2021) are hard to beat, with Mount Buller and Mount Timbertop smiling at you as you wipe off the sweat from riding up the 2km long driveway. 

The visit and tasting is an enthusiastic and engaging journey through the world of natural winemaking. There is a refreshing reality and purity to the wines we tasted. The cellar door talk was engaging and hit that happy balance between the wine and cellar door chat. For anyone that has doubts about natural winemaking (including myself) this is the great place to reset your vinemind and to simply appreciate the result in the glass. 

Amongst our favourites were the pet nat (see explanation below), a surprising Rose made from Pinot Noir (nose of popcorn!) and a Cabernet Merlot that was just French enough without having to worry about diplomatic implications (e.g. submarines). 



Riesling / Gewuerztraminer Pet Nat

Pétillant-Naturel (natural sparkling) is a catch-all term for practically any sparkling wine made in the méthode ancestrale, meaning the wine is bottled before primary fermentation is finished, without the addition of secondary yeasts or sugars. So, pet nat wine is a low sugar wine.

Today was a more than promising and rewarding start to our bicycling adventures on the wine route. But there is nothing like an original and Kermit Lynch's book of the same title, a must read for every wine buff. 

Adventures on the Wine Route

With the daunting prospect of climbing some decent hills tomorrow, we better turn our attention to some carb loading and say CHEERS!





Location: Mansfield VIC 3722, Australia

Comments

  1. FrancieFebruary 12, 2022 at 10:02 AM

    Another interesting Summer's day. Hope fewer hills next ride.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2022 at 2:25 AM

    Nose of popcorn? Color me intrigued...

    ReplyDelete

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