When Liverpool bon vivant IAN BAILEY and owner of WINEDGE (see details at the end of the article) won a raffle prize which gave him one night and tours of Moorilla Winery and MONA in Tasmania, he took his wife Ann’s advice to go for broke and make it a decent stay in the Apple Isle. Here is his report for readers of the South West Voice:
A long-held plan crystallised for the Baileys when the winner of seventh prize in the Wine Communicators of Australia Sydney Royal Wine Show raffle in February was called: ‘’Ian Bailey’’. One night and two tours at Moorilla Winery and MONA, Hobart, was the prize. Value? $600.
It was obvious that a flight down from Sydney for one night was not economical and it did not take long to agree with Mrs Bailey that we should do an additional tour. A couple of travel brochures later, an Evergreen ‘’Best of the West’’ for 7 day coach tour was booked and the rest was up to an agent we thought, to pull it all together.
Rebecca Babanour of Flight Centre in Westfield Liverpool was appointed and without ado, expertly took charge of the itinerary. In brief, this resulted in the following tour:
Day 1: fly to Launceston by Virgin and book into the Hotel Grand Chancellor for a two night stay. Meet the tour leader Sally Austin and coach captain Geoff and about 40 travellers at dinner the first night.
Day 2: visit Woolmers historic (1817) estate, Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Company, and Cataract Gorge, where one could travel suspended in a chair lift across the longest single span in the world at 330 metres. One did.
Day 3: Sheffield to Cradle Mountain via Ashgrove Cheese factory, Anvers Chocolate plant: on to Cradle Mountain at 1545 metres calling in to Dove Lake and Waldheim Chalet in the wilderness. We lost count of the wombats!
Day 4: Visited The Nut at Stanley on our way to Strahan. We thought the Uluru-shaped rock on the coast looked least like any nut we know but the murals on the shops in town were worth seeing. The locals don’t have much else to do. The tour ended at Strahan Village that night for a two night stay. We were overlooking the huge Macquarie Harbour (six times Sydney Harbour) at dinner. And what a dinner! All the food had been good to date but here it was spectacular for a buffet. We congratulated the chef.
Day 5: Gordon River cruise. A very comfortable catamaran (they build them in Tasmania) took us for a few hours to visit pristine ancient forest, a convict island home, Sarah Island, and a play in the evening. We opted out of the play and prepared to enjoy another excellent dinner. This day illustrated why people have fought so hard to preserve the old-growth forests of the rugged wilderness in Tasmania we had heard about.
Day 6: Queenstown to Hobart. Travelling through mining villages was a disturbing shock after the untouched forests. Described in the brochure as a “lunar landscape’’ were hills of bare rock where copper, zinc, silver and gold had been mined. One creek had turned to orange where the water carrying sulphuric acid scoured everything it touched. We were assured that any chemical was diluted by the time it reached the ocean. We wondered if this activity had engendered some guilt in Tasmanians to cause them to drive harder to preserve other areas. We need to investigate further.
Hadleys Hotel and the Drunken Admiral were our venues for the night in Hobart.
Day 7: The tour ended here with a visit to Salamanca Markets on the Saturday morning. A huge, high quality market of handcrafted items, food and wine and old wares runs every Saturday and is crowded! It is one of the best markets we have visited and Mrs Bailey knows markets after 31 years behind a stall herself at Cobbitty.
Day 8: Bus tour of Port Arthur, which was fascinating. How the people lived and built and survived is one of the wonders of Australian history. All we could concede was that there was plenty of cheap labour. But what was built was built to last – quality construction – and to us that meant pride and skill and willingness to achieve. They built 166 boats for goodness sake, until the private boat builders complained to the government and boat building at Port Arthur was stopped!
Picking up our luggage at Hadleys we headed finally for MONA and Moorilla, courtesy of the WCA and our winning raffle ticket.
Day 9: Overnight at MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) was sensational . We only wished we had the capability to operate all the technology! Luxurious was the right word to describe the Robin Pavilion where we crashed after a pretty long day. Fortunately there was a bottle of Moorilla The Muse Series Extra Brut cold in the fridge which revived one. And we still had a few Anvers Truffle Chocolates.
Breakfast the next day was a joy. Beautifully a’la carte served by waiters who knew what they were doing was a breakfast which was absolutely delicious. I chose scrambled egg and smoked salmon, probably one of the greatest combinations in food and Mrs Bailey enjoyed salmon tartare.
After breakfast I headed to the tasting bar where Joe hosted a ‘’private’’ tasting of some of the best Moorilla wines which are only sold cellar door and to some selected restaurants. I was able to taste half a dozen of the Muse Series wines where power of fruit balanced by a strict line of acidity were the keynote, with the 2012 Pinot Noir scoring a gold on my sheet. I also particularly liked the 2013 Gewurztraminer (Alsatian in style), 2013 Sauvignon (Sancerre styled), and the 2012 Chardonnay which is free of MLF but has fine oak. All well over silver medal.
A tasting of three of the limited Cloth Series wines were offered next. The cloth label was originated by the founder of Moorilla, Claudio Alcorso, who was a textile merchant.
The sparkling had great power and a persistent lemony finish. Impressive.
The white, a complex blend of varieties I did not record, is a wine of immense power and structure which I thought could have been less so and more toward the elegant style. Food with this wine would be the decider.
And the 50th anniversary 2012 Riesling. That is the first vines planted 50 years ago, an experiment which succeeded. A beautiful Australian Riesling with some development and juicy citric fruit, long and balanced against the crispness of clean acid. Wonderful! Drink for 20 years.
We spent a few hours in the extraordinary Museum where exhibits raised the bar considerably in that no-one else would be game I think to copy the theme of sex and death in the way the owner, David Walsh, has done. ‘’A bit close to the bone’’ one traveller said, and she was right. We were not offended by any exhibit, but could see where some would be, and there were lots of children around as well. Go and see it for yourself.
Lunch was great again as we enjoyed a winemaker’s platter and a picnic platter with a glass of wine.
Jetstar and the shuttle got us home by 11.00pm.
It had been a very good experience, enhanced by first-class hosting on the bus, very good food, and by and large comfortable accommodation. Tasmania is highly recommended for a quality holiday break.
MONA is a must.
Enquiries:
WINEDGE, Wine Beer and Spirit Education
PO Box 364 Liverpool NSW 2170
P 02 9821 4284 M 0412 251 337
E ibails@bigpond.net.au
Tasmania is a great place for vistas and food! Love Tassie.