Wine: Wine Society Vineyard Selection Chardonnay 2007

Multi-region, $9

I never thought I'd say this, but there's too much alcohol in this wine.  14% is big for a red, let alone a white, and it overpowers the fruit, making it taste a little rough.  Flavours otherwise good, but hard to taste.

Wine: Evans & Tate Margaret River Chardonnay 2006

Margaret River, $21  James Halliday 92 pts

I quite like it.  Subtle fruit (citrus, melon) and even subtler oak.  I like a bit more flavour, so I can get chardies that I like better for this price.

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.