Clare valley to Adelaide

The sprouting vines of the Clare valley

Paulett vineyard

From olives to grapevines

Our stay in the Clare was truly amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.From the stone architecture, that IS south australia, to the Clare agricultural show, all amazing. Yesterday we discovered another treasure. An English manor house near Mintaro, about 12 klms out from Auburn in the Clare Valley. Martindale hall has an interesting but sad story. The owner/builder was a wealthy Englishman who came to Australia mid 1870's. His love was in England and refused to come to Australia even after he built this grand house in the English style.Nearby Mintaro is classed as a historic town and the nearby slate quarry still exports loads of stone all over the world.We were quite taken by the neatness of the area. The grapevines all showing their different stages of spring sprouting with some vines running North South, some running East West and yesterday, we found some following the contours of the hill, Great..This area is well known for some fantastic reds and their most famous variety, reisling. We have tasted several and liked most of them.Paulettes winery has a couple of real beauties. I had a glass of their 2008 Shiraz the night before at the local pub after my fish stew. A lovely, thick sticky red wine of mammoth proportions. Mellow and delicious at the same time. We  tasted several of their range on visiting the winery.Sparkling reisling was surprisingly fruity and refreshing. Their house reisling also excellent. I found the reserve shiraz a little shallow and not quite as full bodied as the current release,2008. Still a lovely shiraz.To be able to cover all of the wineries in the area you would need months and extended credit. Several of the wineries have also diversified, museums at some and restaurants at others.