Wow, it has been a  big week.  Jason and I are in Australia at the moment, Adelaide today, to be precise. This is to give me the chance to meet our Australian distributors, as I am going to be supporting these markets more now, to allow Jason to focus more on Europe.

Durvillea SB as the recommended wine on the Ichi Ni wine list, Melbourne

We started off in Sydney where we met with Shane and James, from Lewis Fine Wines. We had a lovely lunch at Pendolino, and it was a great chance to get to meet them and to get a feel for the market over there. Just by chance it turned out that our Israeli and Hong Kong Astrolabe distributors both lived in Sydney, and neither Jason and I had had a chance to meet them before, so we were able to meet up with them to discuss their respective markets. We now have plans to send Durvillea into Israel, hopefully by Christmas.

Neil, the restaurant Manager and I at Paesano's, Knox City, Melbourne

Next stop was Melbourne where we met with Ian, Andrea and Sarina from Twelve Bottles, they have been doing a fantastic job, and it was great to get a chance to see them in action.

While things have been tough with the recession it looks like things are finally starting to pick up over there.

We ate at some great places that sold our wine, such as Paesanos in Knox City, an Italian family  restuarant, where Frank’s mum still cooks in the kitchen!

Jason, Ian and I with two of the staff at Ichi Ni, St Kilda, Melbourne

Another winner was Ichi Ni, in St Kilda, fabulous Japanese tapas, especially the Wagyu Beef and the soft shell crab California roll. The soft shell crab was fanastic with our Sauvignon, it was also great to look round and see other people drinking our wine.

Then off to the Barossa, after a very early morning flight we arrived into a very windy and warm Adelaide (the place where Meg was born). We hired a car and made our way through the beautiful country side to meet with Kym, Dave and Michael from Teusner Wines. The plan is for our Brisbane distriubutors Smashing Bottles to expand into SA, possibly enlisiting the help of Kym and Dave.  The Barossa is a beautiful place, with the oldest vines I have ever seen, a complete contrast to the young Marlborough vines I am used to.

Kym talking to Jason about the Grenache bush vines

After a great lunch at Wanera with Kym and Dave and a bottle of their Avatar wine, Kym offered to play tour guide, taking us around the Barossa country side, showing us his different blocks, from bush vine Grenache to Mataro.We were also lucky enough to join the boys in their Burgundy tasting they were doing that afternoon.

We are off to Brisbane tomorrow to meet with Kris and Paul from Smashing Bottles.  But before I go I must fill you on on one of the highlights of this week,  Jason and I’s return trip to Adelaide today. Deciding we needed to get some more photos of the gnarly 130+ year old vines we veered off the highway in search of some, finally finding some on one of the dirt roads of the Barossa. Unfortunately on entering one of the drive ways we felt the car sink down into the mud.

We hear there was a lot of rain there last week…..

Fraser, the only other Kiwi we met in the Barossa managed to lend a hand