Wine Festival Continues

You'll be amazed what some people will do and how funny the situation gets as the day goes by.  Three days of fun, food and wine. Who said over 60s are too old to enjoy a day out. Mate the people on the bus reinvented the wheel. Now you don't have to look to far to see a humourous side to of things but some of the group were having a great time until they needed to stand up. We wont mention them by name, but I'm sure they'll remember when they see the photos.

Fun in the sun with wine, food and music was the name of the day on Sunday. It was family day in Stanthorpe and a variety of entertainment from solos, the local Stanthorpe RSL Pipe band and Frank on the drums, the belly and the Cotswold dancers to the Red Dragons and the Bundaberg drummers.

Fun Sun And Wine

From 10am on the music rolled out. And the wine poured out too. What ever the organisers thought of the day it was going to be a bonanza for the fuzz. Out in force in the blue and red checker car. The Sargent reported a quiet day on Saturday and he hoped for the same to day (Sunday), But after looking at the recycling bins there had to be 100s of bottles drunk.

For us lucky ones, we were driven home in the luxury of Filippo's Tour buses by Frank,Tony and Kathy.

Well mate it was about unscrewing bottle tops and pulling the corks out and drinking the red liquid inside. But there is more to it than that and on Friday we visited two wineries in the district. The first was a clinically clean newly established winery called Symphany Hills. Getting its name from the owners wife who was up in the hills near the winery listening to the wind and the birds in the trees. After a tour and a wine tasting it was down to business and the business was selling wine. Now Tony had a good system worked out he came armed with a red marker pen and added the owners name to all packaging before carefully placing it in the bus hold.

The next port of call was an older more rustic winery called Rumbalara. Now this winery started out small many years ago and operated by two older gentlemen they produced 1500 litres of wine a year. It looked old in appearance and was little known in the district until 2001 when it was bought by a South African couple. Not long after the purchase disaster struck and a good many vines were destroyed by fire. But in three years Rumbalara and the new owners have changed the way for good. The wine tasting at Rumbalara was on a much smaller scale, but the quality was formost. To top the tasting off Impi Cream liqueur was tasted and that was enough for all to say " we are going to have to visit again"

Then with the announcment that on 22nd November this year the winery was holding a Wine & Food Festival of its own. At $120 a head, all you can eat and drink and the theme will be South African with suitable food for the day too.

While we were there a grape crush was on and some four tonne of red grapes went through the crusher yelding 3000litres of juice. This juice was pumped up into a stainless steel fermentation tank and the process was then temperature controlled.

One of the members is a Scottish Bull and has been seen getting about in a genuine Jimmy Hat. But not only that he set up a bit of a Jimmy Ring. He or she who held the bus up or was last on the bus had to wear the hat. By the end of the day a number of people had joined the clan including Tony our driver.

What is 8 times 12, now some will bounce the answer out, but after a few wines the leads on the calculator get mixed and the answer can to 48, that is a cheap carton of wine in anyones books, but then you can add on GST, Sales Tax, Stamp duty, Import duty, crushers fees, bottling, labels, marketing and transport the real answer is 96. I wont tell you whose calculator broke down, but it was funny at the time.

Have you ever tried olives from accross the nations, every flavour you can think of, some big and some small, some salty, some sour but it gave us a great chance to try olives and a substance called Dukka. This can be realy nice. Bread dipped into olive oil and then into the dukka and into the mouth. Mt Stirling Olives have a long way to go, but as a small operator growing olives locally they are doing very well.

By now we'd all had a few wines and even I can't remember the order of the day, but on we drove to Suttons Juice Factory. Now this man is all about anything apple. He sells apples, apple juice, apple jelly, apple jam and Charlie, you'll like this one he fortifies some of his juices and makes his own liqueurs with his own pot stihled alcohol.

Pure Heaven was a great place for the blokes, they found a table and chairs and sat outside while the women fiddled about with the smelly samples inside. Soaps that float, clear soap and strong fragents, some looked like it could be eaten. But I think the smell would put you off.

The QCWT or Queensland College of Wine Tourism was a great place to stop for lunch. We sampled three wines along with three varietys of food. And to finish off chocolate moose and a fortified shiraz. The 600 students learn the fun of wine making and art of telling one wine from another purely by smell. The college had very modern facilities and the table we ate at was set like a banquet for 24 people.

At the end of the day we stopped in on Vencenzo's Cafe a one stop shop with everything. Wine, cheese, pasta, jams, coffee and tea, gelati, apples and grapes, and trinkets to suit most people.

By this time the day was nearly over and it was time to return to Warwick. It was a big day and for some it worked up a big thirst. After all that lovely wine, you wouldn't believe it, we called into a pub and took on 4 cartons of beer and three bottles of wine.

It was a quiet night a bigger day coming up next and most were in bed earlier than normal.

So the big day had come according to the Plan and the Itenery and section 126C(ii)D of the running orders set up by the one man committee that a day starting at the bus at 9am and to end at 10pm that same night. A day and a night it was to remember. Stanthorpe was closed from the Anglican Church at the top of the town right down to Quart Pot Creek at the bottom. It was to become wall to wall people, stalls, food outlets, music, buskers and window displays.

I don't know how you are with cultures, but we had a cross section of nearly every country in the world. Stanthorpes population is around 13,000 but during the Festival it bulges out to some 60,000 and we saw them all. We jostled for space all day and dodged the backpacks, prams and the large hats. Fat and cooking oil as it was heated up earlier in the day left a smell of mutton on the boil on the nose. Some good smells and some you had to get clear of.

The weather over the weekend has been great, a bit cool in the shade and quite warm in the sun. So with this weather it soon got everybody down the line looking for a wine to taste. There were whites and reds, liqueurs, ports and muskets and there was a Impi Cream flavoured slush puppy at the Rumbalara stand. But for its alcohol content you could drink those all day.

By now the feet had nearly colapsed and the back was aching and we were busting for a pee. Our organiser said that the CWA would be open. Have a good chair to rest in and toilets. Well Charlie talk about a queueueueue, ever tried hanging on for 20 minutes when you are busting? And when you get there, there is no paper, but that is another story.

At 4pm the Festival Grape Crush was programed. Now this was something to see. Two members of Parliment and the mayor of Warwick and Stanthorpe and an announcer from Channel 7. After much announcing the lightly, white clad crushers got into the barrels and it was on for young and old. The idea was to fill a one litre bottle first and you were the winner.

The grapes were trod on and they were spread over the contestants and the judge too. By the time the first litre was filled everyone on the stage was red from juice. Then when the winner was declared some of the contestants decided to tip a bucket of grapes and juice over the judge. The winner was Channel 7. Next in were the sponsors, the wineries, Harvey World Travel and the Heritage Bank. They weren't as messy as our polititions, but they had just as much fun.

All that wine and a cheap 60 year old bladder and what with a bouncing bus two of our members had to give a big gum tree a drink. We'll let you know later if the tree is still alive or whether is is now pushing out bunches of grapes. By gum they would be sticky.

Thanks again to the Association we all ate very well at the Sunday night BBQ. Three cheers to the cooks and helpers.