One quick trip to this website has all the information a winery needs to know about whether I would like their wines or not. I'm pretty transparent. When the 4th largest producer in Australia offered to meet with me (not to lynch me but to taste their wines), I was surprised and grateful. Obviously it’s been a long, long time since I’ve willingly sipped their offerings. Yet it is very important to keep up with wines on the front line of commercial palates and this well known winery was showcasing their ‘ultra-premium collection.' I really wanted to know what they were up to.

It helped to have my editor friend, Mr. along for the ride, he was the perfect foil. Mr. Bowtie is very forgiving about wine, and while he can identify AF approved wine, and finally prefers them, he can also drink just about anything, even Yellow Tail.

I asked for a spittoon, he was happy to swallow and be my beard.

TBC......