We felt we owed it to our readers to spend our two days in Adelaide checking out the local wine growing areas.  Therefore after a light breakfast at the hotel, we headed South to the historic seaport town of Glenelg.  Here we learned from Robin, who greeted us outside the City Hall, that we should visit the museum to learn why Adelaide became the capital of Southern Australia.  It turns out Captain Light was given the authority by the English Parliament to select the primary city location and he chose the current location of Adelaide.  Proclamation day, December 28, commemorates the day in 1836 when Southern Australia was founded.   After visiting the local quilting-Internet cafe shop, (unbelievable - sewing and Internet in the same shop) and picking up a few fabric samples, we headed South to McLaren Vale (S.A. 5171).  This is one of the four major wine growing areas in the Adelaide region.

Our first stop was the information center to pick up a map, to get some tasting suggestions  and to taste the wines next door at the Davey wine pavilion.  Down here they call their tasting rooms ‘cellar doors’.  Their Singleback Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon were very good.  Next we set off to find Dog Ridge but wound up at Pirramimma where Kathy bought a couple of Australian cookbooks.  Then down the road to Hugh Hamilton’s.  Hamilton’s elevated round tasting room definitely wins the award for the best looking tasting room of the day.  Next we stopped at Wira Wira, an older winery with a newer visitor center.  They have a great Cabernet-Shiraz-Merlot blend called Church Block.  Its harvest season and they have tubs of fermenting red wine out by the parking lot.  Everyone hopes to get their harvest in by Easter and they have only 4 days to go.

Although tired, we trudged on to Foggo Wines.  Here we meet Bob pierce, a local driver and wine guide, who suggested some other wineries we should visit here and tomorrow in the Barossa valley.  Following his suggestion we drove up the hill to Kay Brothers.  This is an old winery dating back over 100 years and we meet the grandson of the founder in the tasting room along with a couple from San Francisco.  Kathy had been saying she was tired of tasting but once she tried their 2003 Hillside Shiraz, she wanted seconds and thirds.  You see her with the Shiraz, Josh, erin and Hubert kay in the picture on the left.  By this time, it was almost 5 PM and we decided to quit for the day and return to our hotel in Adelaide to rest up for tomorrow.