Day 52 - Speed dating with cheese

Mudgee - around town 16km

With the eminent disappearance of wine regions the further north we head, we better have a good taste around Mudgee. I start the day by chasing down Rosie to announce that we are staying another night and jog to the supermarket for some breakfast supplies. 

There is little we know about the wines from here. Which is always an exciting starting point for a tasting. Craigmoor Wines is the oldest winery in the region and would have gone through a major transformation since the takeover by the Oatley family. In case Oatley rings a bell, yes, the late Robert Oatley AO was an Australian entrepreneur, perhaps best known for owning the yacht Wild Oats XI, multiple winner of the Sydney - Hobart race. He also bought Hamilton Island in Queensland. But I digress. The family's name is well-known in the wine industry (Rosemount Estate in the Hunter Valley and Robert Oatley Wines in the Margaret River) - so they know what they are doing when it comes to running a successful wine business. 

Once we get all the background facts about this place set straight, we fully immerse into the tasting of 6 different wines, conducted by a well-trained and likeable cellar door ambassador, who runs us so smoothly through the tasting, it feels a bit like watching a Disney movie. With both, Disney and the wines in front of us, you can't go wrong. The wines are all very approachable and easy to drink, not much eye-brow bending required, but they all unmistakably represent the region. The main varieties are Chardonnay and Shiraz, and in terms of style, they sit between cool and hot climate, the whites with a stronger leaning towards cool and vice versa with the reds. If we had to pick a wine to take with us, it would have been NV Craigmoor Australia Cuvee Rose, at $16.95 a real bargain. We resist and move on to find something a little more artisan. 

The very friendly greeting, by the dog and Samantha, daughter of the owners, at Vinifera Wines instantly tells us we have come to the right place. This is family affair, no commercial cosmetics and a very promising sounding line-up of wines including three Spanish matadors of red wine: Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano - next to the local heroes of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Aside from Samantha being an enthusiastic and very engaging guide through her families wine portfolio, what really strikes at this place is that winemaking is approached from the grower's perspective rather than the winemaking one. She says "we are first and foremost vignerons". This is refreshing and easy to engage in, no winemaker's jargon to compete with. Good wines come from good fruit. The wines speak the same language. They are pure, real and honest. The most unknown variety of the three Spaniards, Graciano, is a splendid wine. Keep it in mind for your next meal involving kangaroo. 

Great tasting line up at Vinifera

The indepth experience at Vinifera totally satisfies our wine exploration goal for the day and we head back to Mudgee. Just a couple of kms out of town is the High Valley Cheese Co. . We wouldn't have stopped there if it wasn't for the lady at the caravan park eagerly telling us about this place and suggesting we should make it a stop. 

What follows must be one of the world's fastest cheese tastings. Seriously, I still shake my head smiling, when I think of it. The lady behind the counter looked harmless but once she got started, you couldn't finish your "mmmhhh" before the next stick with the next cheese was held under your nose. Five minutes, 9 cheeses and $19.50 later we are back on the bikes, laughing into the handlebars. And they are seriously good cheeses, not something you want to get through quickly because it tastes so bad. We eat the piece of Rouge as a starter before dinner and I am bound to believe it will lead to good dreams.

The taste of Mudgee, it's damn good.