Southern Highlands Wine Tour

On Saturday Gill's parents Wayne and Denise took us on a tour of some of the wineries in the Southern Highlands, which are a couple of hours south west of Sydney.

Yesterday was also the NSW state election. Gill is registered to vote in Toongabbie (yes, that's actually a real place) where her parents live, so we stopped there on the way. It was fascinating to see how they do things here; the constituency is the seat of Nathan Rees, the Australian Labor Party former NSW Premier who was unseated a couple of years ago. He clung on to his seat, with a 17% swing state wide which saw the ALP virtually wiped out and a massive Coalition (Liberal & National) victory. Amongst the many parties contesting the election were the Sex Party and the No Parking Meters Party; but I was quite taken with this poster of the Shooters and Fishers Party; their badge (in the bottom right) has figures fishing and shooting. I, for one, certainly want my freedom to shoot to be protected.

The ballot papers are massive and pretty complicated as they have a system of preferences. 

We went to three wineries. This a cool climate wine growing region, which specialises in whites and light reds. Our first stop was Joadja, a small, boutique winery which did an excellent Riesling.

And we got to go frolicking amongst the vines...

The second vineyard was Blue Metal, where Gill and I picked up a lovely dessert wine, a red blend of Cabernet, Melot and Petit Verdot, and a Sauvignon Blanc; they also did some excellent jams and marmalades too.

We had a picnic outside.... 

... before heading to Centennial Vineyards - a much bigger winery which was preparing for tonight's Lionel Ritchie concert. There were some good views of the vineyard:

We finished up with a visit to an awesome little Vietnamese restaurant in Blacktown, in the heart of western Sydney which is a bit like Croydon (no photos - too dangerous to get my camera out there).