Wine: Cumulus Rolling Sauvingon Blanc Semillon 2007

Central Ranges, NSW

I like sauvignon blancs in moderation - those yummy tropical flavours are lovely for a pre-dinner drink or two - but I find it cloying after a couple of glasses.

This wine has those tropical flavours but nicely balanced with lemon and almost a sort of honey.  I like it!

Adventure: Mosel Valley, Germany

Cat and I journeyed here in October last year.  It is a postcard vineyard landscape: a gorgeous river meandering through cliffs and steep banks terraced with vines - and the occasional castle.  This is the centre of German riesling territory.

We stayed in Koblenz and took the train to Cochem, which takes under an hour.  We took a leisurely boat back, which takes about 5 hours.

Cochem is lovely too, with steep windy cobblestone streets leading up to an awesome castle on the hill.

We couldn't quite work out the deal with wine tasting: it seems that unlike with Australian cellar doors you only taste a wine to see if you do in fact want to buy a bottle, rather than sampling all of what they have on offer and seeing what you like.  Anyway, we found one cellar door who were very helpful if a little gruff and we sampled their rieslings.  All but the driest tasted too sweet to us, being used to Australian rieslings, but the dry was pretty yummy and the 'half-dry' would be a good match with sweet or spicy food.

Anyway, I'd thoroughly recommend a trip to this stunning part of Germany.

Wine: Taylors Jaraman Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Clare Valley / Coonawarra, $31

Dave says: 

This multi-medal wine was good but I wanted more for the price.

Had some warm chocolatey and blackcurrant flavours and also some cooler green capsicum / tomato tones.  Tasted a bit young to me, maybe a bit of cellaring would be worthwhile.  Lots of alcohol at 14.5%.

We had it with rack of lamb and it worked pretty well.

Certainly yummy but I didn't quite get the rave reviews it gets.

Cat says:

We bought this one on the recommendation of James Halliday, who in his 2008 Australian wine companion gave this wine 94 points. The wine companion says, 'Big, rich and ripe cassis and blackcurrent fruit solidly supported by integrated oak'. I don't know what the distinction between cassis and blackcurrant is (aren't they the same?), but I mostly agree with this description, except for the 'big' bit. It's certainly rich and ripe with lots of blackcurrant, but I've had bigger wines, for less money too. I liked this wine, although I think I've had better for the price. The fact that it's more medium bodied than full meant that it was better with the rare lamb rack I cooked to go with it.

Restaurant: Nove, Finger Wharf, Woolloomoolloo, Sydney

We headed to Nove on a balmy Sydney summer afternoon.  Sitting outside, looking over the Woolloomoolloo wharf to the city skyline was very pleasant indeed.

Cat started with a refreshingly bitter Campari soda, which was welcome on a hot and humid day.

I had whole snapper with a sort of olive, orange and pine nut tapenade.  The fish was fresh and tasty, nicely cooked so the skin was crispy but the flesh moist.  The tapenade worked well although it was oilier than necessary.

I tasted some of Cat's pizza - goats cheese, pumpkin and pesto - which was your classic thin-based variety and was yummy.

We washed the meals down with a Patina rose from Orange.  It had a vibrant campari-red hue and was lemony and acidic with hints of berries and spice.  Not too sweet.  Nice and refreshing.

I grabbed an affogato for dessert.  It was great.  Really good coffee with that proper vanilla ice cream with vanilla specks through it.

Service was attentive and friendly.

Our meal came to $88 (would have been cheaper if it wasn't a Sunday).  It's substantially cheaper than the other restaurants on the wharf and still does good, simple, fresh pasta, pizza and a small selection of meat and seafood.

DJ

Welcome to our blog

If you've stumbled upon this, welcome!

The idea behind this blog is to record our experiences with yummy wines and great restaurants for future reference, but we welcome visitors on our journey and welcome your thoughts on any of the wines and restaurants we try.

Cheers!

C & D