The phone rang, and the string of numbers on the caller ID was longer than they should be. The miracle of clear trans-Pacific communication apparently did not extend to Thad having access to the Internet in the hinterlands of Australia, and so he called on me as a scribe to let you know what he was up to, and that accumulated posts about wines we love will hit as soon as Thad can connect.
The following notes are from my conversation with Thad; any mistakes are mine.
Thad's time prior to this posting has been spent with the super-quality (my notes said SQ, maybe Thad said sort of quiet, or suddenly quaking...), family-owned producers turning out 1500-3000 cases of amazing wine. These are the multi-generational producers in the Barossa Valley Thad has raved about.
Now, Thad has moved east of Barossa to the Riverlands and the McLaren Vale and is visiting Paringa and R Vineyards. Thad says the goal of Paringa is to make the best $10 bottle of wine in the world for any type of wine they chose to take on -- Cab, Merlot, Shiraz, and a Sparkling Red. Paringa and R are bigger -- 50,000 cases -- and are driven by the creative energy of Dan Phillips and the wine making of Chris Ringland.
Big or small, it has been a dry winter, and there is universal worry about the water table in the vineyards and how it will stress the vines.
The best news is that Thad is lining the best of Paringa and R for export to Knoxville, and that some of these will hit the store in the Fall. Your scribe would like to announce that we will have an Australian BBQ at Thad's house when he returns, but if he did Thad might never ask him to post for him again.
