I love sparkling shiraz ...

... do you love sparkling shiraz?
I do, I really, really do love sparkling shiraz.


Also, weed pie, I LOVE weed pie!'
And Kittens. Nothing better than kittens really.

The Village of Millthorpe ...

... Millthorpe is lovely, I can almost see myself living there, except for the whole no job and it's so bloody far from the city.Still, it's got a couple of lovely places to eat, Basalt, where we ate on the Friday, and Tonic, where we plan to eat one day. It has one hat! I didn't know and did zero research before our jaunt. Never mind, next time.
Millthorpe is cold, but I'm a cold climate girl, and the things you can grow! Yes, I do realise I used to complain about what I couldn't grow when I lived in a cold climate. Now I complain about what I can't grow in a warm one. It's rather like the curly hair, straight hair thing or grass being green everywhere except where you are at any given time I guess.
Anyway, there are wineries galore, including one in the main street, a cooking school, truffles just down the road, an amazing old bone yard to wander through (I hate modern lawn cemeteries, HATE them), and room, lots of room. O, and Mr Brown was very impressed with the coffee.
If you have time, take a look at this little lot.

The wines ...

... I mentioned wine last post, didn't I? Six-and-a-half cases finding their way, somehow, into the ute? Yep, plus some Australian made gin and apple schnapps (m0re about those laters).
No, we aren't particularly heavy drinkers, not at all.So, after a morning truffle hunting, and a wonderful antipasto/plowmans' lunch, we were let loose on the Orange Region wineries.
First stop Dindima and I'm ashamed to admit it was chosen as the first stop solely based on the prettiness of its label. Yep, I'm that shallow. Still, you have to start somewhere and it turned out to be an excellent choice. The lovely Lee (I've yet to meet a Lee I didn't like), mother of the winemaker James Bell, walked and talked us through the entire range. We got to meet Dave too, the winemaker's dad, who was trying to get the new wine warm enough to start second fermentation. It was a "fucking freezing" day remember.
The wine was wonderful, Mr Brown got a little overexcited on the Shiraz front, and we walked away richer by several cases.
Next stop, Canobolas-Smith Wines, hand-made wines no less!
This time Justin talked us through the collection. I was particularly impressed with the Wild-Yeast Chardonnay, which may not sound unusual but I'm not usually a Chardonnay drinker these days. Murray Smith, the winemaker, who was wearing SHORTS, assisted us with boxing up our extensive selection and we pootled off once more.
Last stop was Philip Shaw wines. This was the prettiest vineyard and winery and it's the spot I finally remembered Rupert was still in the car and should have been taking photos.
Enjoy.

O, yes, the wine, fantastic, just fantastic. AND the prettiest and most quirky of all the wine labels too.

Drank quite a bit of very nice ...

... red wine with girlfriends tonight. Cheery, laughy, loud and gossipy girlfriends.
I'm feeling a little less blue.

The week that was ...

... been a tardy blogger, pressure of work and all that. So a short report.
Monday - work, prep work for Tuesday's dinner, bed.
Tuesday - work, new neighbours over for dinner, roasted lambkins and all the trimmings and Bill's self-saucing chocolate puddings (I'd have made passion fruit ones but rats and possums eat the passion fruit before I can pick it - utter bastards). Can I recommend these puddings to you? So easy, so tasty, make you look like a domestic goddess too. New neighbours seem very nice, they brought Moet too!
Wednesday - work, gallery, home for pizza.
Thursday - work, drinkies with the other neighbour to say farewell since she & the twin boys, Sinister & Dexter, are moving to the Eastern Suburbs. Pity, she's a good neighbour and nice too. And the boys, now they've grown up a bit, were becoming kind of fun to have around. Australian Sparkling White Wine was consumed, then the non-sparkling variety, no dinner was had except a packet of lime & black pepper crisps. Large as it was it was not enough for 3 adults and 2 4-year-olds.
Friday - slightly hungover at work, yumcha for lunch, home to red wine & beef risotto and an early night.
And now it's Saturday ... more on that later.

ooh, this is fun ...

Go here to make your own.
And apparently Mr Brown and I have been seriously deluding ourselves about our booze intake. It turns out we should only be drinking 2 standard drinks a day. Shit, it would appear we are problem drinkers, perhaps even alcoholics with terribly damaged brains and endangered unborn children. I worry for the cats, what will become of them when we are hauled off, dribbling messes of former humanity?

This evening ...

... Mr Brown & I shared a 10-year-old bottle of Saddlers Creek Marrowbone Chardonnay. It came in a special pack, only special wine wankers like us get, 2002 is the best ordinary folk can hope for. The colour of honey with a fine strong flavour and just a hint of the dusty old age to come.
Just so you all know, it was very fine indeed.

I don't want to seem ungrateful ...

... our quaffing store was a little low so I ordered a couple of cases of some nice white, to assist the suffering through summer. All slots nicely filled. But then this morning, these were dumped on our doorstep. Mr Brown gave me one of those looks (you know the look, the "you greedy, credit card wielding baggage" look) and I swore I'd not ordered the stuff.
Then it clicked - we have a long-standing order, a case of red & white "wine of the month" arrives at this time every year. And every year we forget about it. I blame the wine.

Remember ...

... the blood/hibiscus incident/mix-up?
We had to use the flowers, now sans syrup (having ended up in my lap), before they went orf! (I'm not actually sure if flowers go off but figured it wasn't worth risking).
And so,
a bottle of sparkling Australian white wine (not allowed to call it champagne anymore, and I'm not prepared to pay $80 for a quaff) and a jar of flowers were consumed.
Merriment was had.
And dinner was eaten very, very late indeed.
Yes, yes, I know it looks like there's a huge tumour in my glass but trust me, tis tasty.

I was just thinking the other day how empty the wine section of the panty was looking. And low & behold, what should arrive on the doorstep yesterday afternoon but, WINE!Our delivery instructions say "if nobody's home, leave on the front porch". Most delivery folk just pop it behind the little wall thingy. Not yesterday, the cases were hidden behind the black plastic paper recycling tub near the gas meter and then covered with our door mat.
When Mr Brown came home from the sea he trundled up the hall (in his rolling seafarer gait) & asked me where I'd put the doormat? Que??
Found it & the wine not long after that.
Mmmmmm Shiraz & Chardonnay.