I recently read an article by someone complaining about the boredom of retirement and no longer having the chance to learn new things. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that this really got my goat up!

One of the big surprises of retirement and spending time on the road has been the things that we’ve learned. Not just about caravans and towing. We had to learn that very quickly, and we are still learning eleven years or so after buying our first van. But other stuff too.

Stuff like, navigation and geography, weather and climate, geology, biology, history, agriculture, arts, and culture to name a few.

“Dig gentlemen dig, but no deeper than six inches, for there is more gold to be won from the top six inches than from all of the depths below.” Said Lindsay Brown who was the first to plant vines in the Rutherglen region of Victoria. Mr. Brown’s descendants under the brand name of Brown Bros. are still harvesting the bounty from Victoria’s northeast.

According to Statista.com there are 60 accredited wine regions across Australia, with around 160,000 hectares under vines. Wikipedia tells us that in excess of 1 billion litres of wine is produced annually.

If we felt inclined we could walk to our nearest vineyard, but that doesn’t stop us from seeking out the odd winery or two in our travels. The south and eastern regions of Australia are blessed with the climate and soils that are perfect for wine growing.

Brown Brothers April 2017

It’s autumn 2017 and we’ve heard that Brown Brothers Winery in Milawa has an RV park. Across the road from the winery there is plenty of asphalt parking beside a nice mown lawn with views to a tree plantation. We must contain our grey water which usually means catch it in a bucket and distribute it around the nearby trees. Thus, we spend the afternoon sitting in the autumn sun on Brown Brother’s terrace admiring the gardens and enjoying a chilled wine or two over a charcuterie platter before wobbling back to the van cradling another half dozen bottles of ballast. You could say that this free camp gets the thumbs up even if it’s not so free in the long run.

Rutherglen Summer 2016

We’re camped in Rutherglen with our caravan club mob and it’s hot, a real ‘stinker’. Toothless and his Missus have organised a winery walkabout to All Saints, St Leonards,  Cofield’s, Pfeiffer’s, Stanton & Killeen, Campbells, and Chambers wineries. At All Saints we’re too busy taking our group photos to notice that group visits are by prior arrangement only, we then proceed to enter by the wrong door finding ourselves behind the serving counter, whoops. The woman in charge is furious. A quick perusal of the prices on the tasting list and most of us disappear quietly to the cheese and homewares shop where we receive a cheery welcome. St Leonards turns out to be a fizzer as it is closed for the day. The team at Cofield’s is helpful and get us into the spirit of the tastings before shepherding us next door to the aptly named Pickled Sisters cafe for lunch. Well sated and we’re off again, this time to Pfeiffer’s on Sunday Creek where we are lucky enough to get to blow into a breathalyser, oh dear one wine with lunch and I’m already .04! A favourite and always reliable, Stanton & Killeen staff help us top up our cellar of fortified wines before doing the same again at Campbells across the road. Eventually, we trudge out laden with wine and feeling a bit ordinary but it doesn’t take much coaxing to have us back in the cellar this time at Chambers admiring their historic barrel and their three legged dog.

It’s a warm evening as we set up a long table on the lake shore and have an absolute symphony of Italian food under the stars. What a perfect end to a fabulous day.

De Bortoli and Bill – Griffith, NSW

In October 2020 and we were lucky enough to sprint out of Victoria between the first two lockdowns. We spent the winter in NSW, which at that stage had only had the initial National lockdown.  We didn’t rush to get home as the weather was warm and we were free to roam.

It was Elle’s 70th birthday and she would not be able to spend it with the family because of the lockdown. Thus, we decide to do a celebratory cellar door tour but only make it to one winery. The tasting at De Bortoli is such fun and our hostess, a Griffith local, is most informative as she introduces us to wines that we wouldn’t have found elsewhere. By 11:30 we stagger out the door wondering how we’ll fit 60 bottles in the car and where we’ll stow them in the caravans. I think Woody’s sock drawer is already full of beer. The wine is such a bargain and so drinkable we just hope that it still tastes good when we get home and that we haven’t been seduced by the viticultural ambience. Zipping back into town we grab some Caesar wraps from Bertoldo’s Bakery to soak up the alcohol and gosh they’re good.

In the evening El Prado pops a bottle of French champagne and we toast Elle’s birthday before the cab picks us up for dinner. During the short drive the cabbie gives us his take on the murder of local drug protester Donald McKay back in 1977, (don’t mention the Mafia).

La Scala is a traditional Italian restaurant with a welcoming and homely feel. There’s a huge bunch of hot pink roses on the table waiting for Elle. El Prado has been busy. Our Canadian waitress admits to working at Bertoldo’s during the day and in fact she made the wraps we had for lunch. We order a bottle of local Calabria Family Durif and as we discuss the lusciousness of our choice the bloke on the next table asks us what we think of it. We rave about how good it is and he replies, “I’m glad you didn’t say it was shit, because it’s one of mine!” And thus, we meet Bill. Now amongst all this chit chat poor Elle, the birthday girl is fair hanging for a good Italian meal and none of us is disappointed. At the recommendation of our hostess at De Bortoli I can barely look at the menu as the Osso Buco special is far too tempting and delicious.

As we roll out of the cab, Elle clutching her roses, the scent of orange blossom hangs heavy on the air. What a day.

It’s next morning and Day 122 of our winter sojourn and it’s highly unlikely that Melbourne will ease lockdown restrictions as planned as the Covid case average is still too high.

Our vans are looking like they’ve been to the moon and back. Elle is wondering how to stow her roses whilst travelling and El Prado suggests standing them in the toilet.

As arranged over dinner last night we meet Bill at his winery. He shows us his impressive cellar dining room complete with handsome table crafted from flattened wine barrels. He gives the boys a bottle each of Durif and a lovely bottle of rose for the birthday girl. He also gives us a member’s discount on our purchases. He’s a top bloke Bill and a bloody good salesman. Once more we struggle out to our caravans knees bent, laden with cartons of wine.

Bubbles by the fire, Jul 2018 Ayr, Qld

We’re camped at the Burdekin Cane Farm just outside of Ayr, Qld. It’s perfect Queensland winter weather, warm and dry. Gary the farmer has taken us out to see a sugar cane ‘burn’ firsthand and we’re hyped up from the experience.

While the steak cooks on the fire Elle chats to a couple who are Victorian vignerons and they shyly tell us that they would love to do more caravanning but their award-winning vineyard has kept them too busy. I get a sneaking suspicion and later do a Google search and sure enough their Chardonnay grapes are quite possibly the best in Australia and if you want to try it you’ll have to fork out $130 – $199 a bottle. Trust me it’s delicious and deserving of the price tag. And what are we drinking …a bottle of cheeky $6 red bubbles from heaven knows where.

Great Western Feb 2022

Westwards we go again to the little town with a big name, Great Western. This time we don’t see the town as we turn off beforehand, to the racecourse and recreation reserve which is located behind Seppelt’s Great Western cellars. Great Western made the news only a few weeks ago when 20 cars were burnt in a fire at the annual race day. We pull in and two charred cars are on our left. We wait for volunteer Wendy to drop in and show us the ropes. There are some good sites with power, and water is only a gallop away. We have a shady spot with views across the straight to the Grampians/ Gariwerd National Park. Then we stuff around a lot, as we always do when there’s a choice of sites, even parking ourselves too far from the power box.

After gulping down a quick lunch we toddle through the back gate and into Seppelts winery. We were here in 2019 on our ‘Up the Guts’ trip to Darwin which ended in disaster when the car blew its engine a day later and nowhere near Darwin. As we walk in the cellar door we realise that we have only one mask between the 3 of us. Woody, being the fit one scampers back to the van to grab a few spares.

The tour is brilliant, but it is disappointing to learn that they no longer process or store wines here, all that is done in South Australia. Boardroom decisions no longer involve passion, romance, or history it seems. Seppelts Great Western is synonymous with sparkling wines and the underground cellars or drives as they are known were dug by gold miners. The winery has been here since 1865 when it was established by Best brothers. These days Best Wines are known for their vineyard on the other side of town. Without going into a lot of who bought what and when history, the business at one time was owned by a Hans Irvine who employed Charles Pierlot a winemaker from the House of Pommery to produce champagne-style wines. Thus, it was here in 1890 that Australian drinking history was to become unique. The drives were extended to 3 kms but they weren’t growing the right grapes for ‘champagne’. Pierlot experimented with shiraz grapes on hand instead and the rest was history. Oh, thank you Charles Pierlot for creating a foaming drop that just screams ‘Christmas in Summer’. Seppelts as it later became known went on to become a household name for sparkling wines both white and red.

At happy hour we just have to crack open a sparkling shiraz. We cook rissoles in the evening and kangaroos come down to graze on the green grass of the racetrack.

There ya go, rissoles and sparkling shiraz, a match made in heaven! Which probably leads us to gastronomy…