Wine, Gin and Delicious Things

We decided to only book a half day wine tour, which included one winery, a lunch and then a gin factory tour with a tasting. Our driver, Terry, arrived and announced that we were the only ones who had booked the half day, so we essentially had our own private car. No complaints!

Our first stop was the Velo cellar door. On the way Terry informed us of the history of the wine industry in Tasmania. He was very knowledgeable and personable. After tasting and buying some delicious local wines, we apparently had a little bit of time before our lunch booking so he drove us around Grundelwald. This was a lovely little town that had been built into the style of a Swiss village. The houses and architecture were to be marveled at and apparently now attract quite a pretty penny. He also took us on a little track down to a lake made especially for the town that was home to lots of ducks and other water birds. A great detour and a town we would have never known about had we not had some time to kill!

Lunch was the Ducks restaurant, which was on the property of the Ninth Island Vineyard. Terry advised us that the signature dish was the crumbed Tasmanian scallops and chips, so we ordered that and a Tasmanian mushroom risotto to share. Both of us admitted to not being big fans of scallops usually, but agreed that the freshness of the local seafood has been second to none, and once again we enjoyed this meal very much. The risotto was so lemony and flavourful, and packed with mushrooms. All washed down with local Pinot Gris & Pinot Noir. On the way out Michele couldn’t resist patting one of the resident golden retrievers, Nutella and Marmalade.

Bellies full, we were now driven to Three Cuts Gin Distillery, where we were given an awesome private tour of the entire process of both whiskey and gin production. It was interesting to see the raw processes of the mash being fermented in the stills. This distillery is so young that it hasn’t actually released its whiskey yet, as it takes a minimum of 2 years to age in the barrel. Gin takes a much shorter time to create, hence why they are producing this in the meantime. Our tour guide then directed us over to the bar area where we tried 4 different styles of gin, explaining the different processes and ingredients that go into producing the flavours and intensity of each. We purchased the Rose gin.

Terry took us back to our apartment and we got ready to walk down to our dinner at Cataract on Paterson. We enjoyed oysters mornay and Kilpatrick, and shared mains of Tasmanian crispy pork belly and loaded potato skins. Washed down with local wine…of course!