A Day with Phil and Lauren

We make a morning run into what passes as the village of McLaren Vale for Carol to purchase flowers to take to Lauren. The lady in the flower shop is very nice.

Here is Carol with the flower arrangement in front of the sitting pavilion at the B&B.

The Grape Pickers Cottage is in the foreground, the old stables, now the owner's homestead is in the background

Phil and his assistant Pat are cleaning the sediment from wine fermenting barrels. They pump the wine into a vat, use a device called a sonotrode to wash out the inside of the barrel, refill it and then top it off. The process is repeated with each barrel.

When the barrels are finished Phil returns them to continue mellowing for months.

The time has come to taste wine. Since Phil is working, Lauren and CJ walk up the hill to the warehouse and select five bottles to sample. Back in the winery, Phil and Pat are finishing up. Lauren pours the first two tastes. After the first two, CJ begins opening and pouring the last three. We will return to purchase two cases on Friday.