Right, time for a wine tour up the Swan River...Lyn and I packed a lunch and set out for a meander though the Valley. Never mind that the river doesn't actually flow anywhere because there's hardly enough rain and runoff to push it seaward. It's mostly salt on the top and a little fresh water underneath, and they tell me that the bull sharks manage to get themselves pretty far upstream. Charming.
The wineries, on the other hand, manage to keep their products flowing despite the 12-year drought they've had around Perth. We visited several vineyards, a chocolate factory, a lavender farm (with lavender wine which wasn't half bad), and Nougat World. I learned that nougat is a French word, but the Italians actually invented it (they call it torrone). It was probably more than I really needed to know about nougat, although Lyn loves it and bought a couple of big bars - Aussies call if Nougahhhh....
The highlight of our trip was Lamont's winery where we met a very funny, bossy wine expert who forced us to try at least six of their wines, refilled the olive bowl that we practically cleaned out during the tasting and allowed us to eat our picnic lunch under his grape arbor, despite the fact that they had a cafe on site. We bought a bottle of an excellent white that we had just tried and he provided us with two beautiful glasses, a chilled wine holder and made sure that the cafe music was piped out to us. It was one of those moments in life where you absolutely know that you're in the right place at the right time. It was magic.
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