Willard's Review of Oz

Well this is a painful experience. Sitting at my desk trying to think best how to write a blog on my trip to Australia, whilst reminiscing over my Love Wine Instagram posts and a trigger happy photo library downloaded from my Camera. The joys of coming back to reality. What an amazing trip!

For the past ten minutes I have been listing my experiences from a cracking three weeks spent down in Australia. To be honest the list was so long that I ran out of commas… so what I have decided to do is drip feed you all over the next few Love Letters.

My trip was split into three parts; Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula / Adelaide with its surrounding wine regions of Barossa & Eden Valley, McLaren Vale and the stunning Adelaide Hills and then finally the east cost and Sydney to relax with my brother. Each delivering different and quite frankly amazing experiences; sampling first hand an electric, vibrant and creative offering of restaurants, bars and coffee shops; vineyards and breweries producing products which are moving and shifting the market, hitting brilliant levels of quality and variation; and not to forget a very ‘real’ experience in the South Australian outback with Jane Ferrari of Yalumba at the Australian Professional Bull Riding event of the year. I was left with a head full of ideas and inspiration, hopeful to pass on to our lovely little market here in Jersey.

Melbourne and the Peninsula are very much tried and tested from a personal point of view and I have very special friends and memories down there. It was here I started my wine journey 7 years ago and when I get a spare moment I will report back on new findings and experiences. On the other hand South Australia / Adelaide was a uncharted territory for me so I have decided to concentrate my initial reports here, with three main standout experiences. Without giving too much away, they were:

A day of storytelling with Jane Ferrari in the Barossa Valley | Lost in a Forest with a glass of Ochota Barrels | Finding out that not all treasure is silver or gold, it’s a Pirate’s life for me

All very coded but trust me, you have reason enough to be very excited. Love Wine have gone the distance to bring back some savagely good Australian produce for you to enjoy…