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Bella Circus

We spent Saturday at Bella Winery & Caves for their event, Bella Circus.  It was part of the Passport weekend, and Bella has made it a point to go all out with their events.  While we're fans of Bella, what brought us to the event was to see a family friend perform in the circus - a random coincidence. 

Friday Night Tasting?

The picture should tell the whole story.  In what was initially
intended to be a single bottle of wine winding down after a nice dinner and a long week of work resulted in seven, count them, seven bottles of vino.  In TheWino fashion, a small group of close friends, ended up drinking good wine well into the night.  On Saturday morning we felt the pain, some more than others (my brother in law in particular was hurting) but nothing can replace opening up endless bottles of wine.  Well, ok its not always the best idea if you have comittments the next day but fortunately for me I had none. 

Of the seven bottles my favorite was the Longoria Syrah (2002, Santa Barbera County). 

Thorn-Clarke Wines: Winery Tasting

Thorn-Clarke is a new winery, located in the Barossa Valley, outside the town of Angaston.  Their first bottling was in 2003 after originally planting in 2000.  I was familiar with their wines thanks to their good fortunate in being selected by Wine Spectacular as having one of the top 100 wines for 2005 (Shotfire Ridge Shiraz).  So upon planning my trip I wanted to see what else they had up their sleeves.  They’re not a huge winemaker, producing approximately 60k cases a year but they're on the come (so to speak).  We arrived at Thorn-Clarke after spending the morning at Henscke & Yalumba, so in fairness we came a bit tainted but we were disappointed to find that their tasting room was characterless & manned by the company's accountant.  She was friendly, knowledgable and pleasurable but compared to the rest of the wine experiences across South Australia it was a disappointment.

Old World Winery 2004 White Night Rosé "Nunes Vineyard"

Old World Winery's 2004 White Night "Nunes Vineyard" is their first foray into this varietal, and it’s a triumphant effort. With an extremely limited production, only 28 cases, this is a rare vintage but if you have an opportunity to taste don’t pass it up. Made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes, the natural berry explosion can balance even the strongest cheeses. Serve chilled.
Watch out for future Rosé releases from Old World Winery.

BottomLine: Beautiful Rosé that will please anybody on a warm evening   

TheWino Rating: 90

Varietal Notes
Price: $14
Cases: 28
Winery: Old World Winery