This was our last winery for the day, run by two sisters. They were open specially for us, but had actually been out with garden hoses putting out the grass fires earlier in the day. It was within 50 yards of the parking lot and the buildings. Although they were very congenial, you could tell that their minds were elsewhere and who could blame them.
We got a “talk through” about how wine is made. You’ve all seen it on the Discovery channel, so I won’t go into it here. What we did learn, though, is that Vegamite, which is about a national dish here, is the dead yeast and hops and stuff that comes out of the bottom of the tank when they make beer. Same stuff comes out when you make wine, but apparently nobody though to spread it on toast for breakfast.
We haven’t tried it yet; haven’t even seen it, in fact.
There were roses here. Roses were planted as a “bellweather” to indicate disease among the crops. The hope was the aphids would go there first and leave the grapes alone, or that you could at least know when the aphids were present because they’re easier to find on the roses.
