Coonawarra - Feb 21

Summary: why Coonawarra, dual carriageways finally show up, tidy corner of South Australia, we're in the small-town espresso belt, Coonawarra review

Driving with focus, grit, and determination, we could doubtless get from Adelaide to Melbourne in a day. We have driven with focus, grit, and determination a few times this trip, but we are going to take it easy this time. There are benefits to running ahead of schedule. We’ve had 5 nights in Adelaide and it is time to move on. Australia has many fine wine regions, but three really stand out to me: Barossa, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra. The remaining one that I yearned to visit is Coonawarra, which is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon. (actually, I would now rate the wine tasting in Margaret River ahead of Coonawarra, but that is beside the point)

We left Adelaide and as soon as we got away from the traffic, we got onto one of those dual carriageways. I don’t mean to overdo a topic, but Adelaide would truly benefit from having its highways in and around the city (vs. well outside the city). Having one on the way out is like saying “now that the road is empty anyhow, here’s an extra lane – hope you liked the gridlock to this point”. Anyhow, it was a nice ride out.

Most of the drive was along the coast – actually it was along the intercoastal waterway. There is this shallow channel between the road and some dunes (probably dangerous when the tide rolls in). I mention this only because if you look at my photos from Albany, Esperance, the Nullarbor, and when I get to the Great Ocean Road, you may become convinced that the entire Southern Ocean coast is one long cliff. One of the funnier items we came across was a massive lobster. Not sure if Kingstown is known for lobsters of if a lobster was deemed an appropriate animal to make people stop. From there, we headed west towards Naracoorte, where we would go south through Coonawarra.

Many towns in Australia have had signs on the way in indicating that they are competing for Australia’s tidiest town. This is not some niche competition – we had seen this all over and apparently it is a big deal to more than a few town councils. Finally, we entered one which had won tidiest town. In 1993. It almost seemed like some town in Texas boasting a AA State Championship from a not-at-all forgotten decade long ago. Lucindale still looked pretty tidy, although no more tidy than most towns in Australia. There was nothing that especially placed Lucindale ahead of Georgetown, Queensland or Pine Creek, Northern Territory or Carnarvon, Western Australia… but I must confess that I do not know what the requirements are for tidiest town and it could well be that those other towns have invested heavily to follow Lucindale’s example. At the very least, Lucindale’s size did stretch the idea of what qualifies as a town. This is not meant to downplay the award, as many towns have signs just indicating that they have entered themselves and candidates for tidiest town ’08. I just know that when you’re still living off an award from 15 years ago it means a) it was a really big deal, b) there has not been much going on since then, c) someone forgot to take the sign down, or d) some combination of the above. Since I give all of Australia the benefit of the doubt, I’ll go with “a)” until I see otherwise. Regardless, I smiled, knowing that I had been part of history, passing through Australia’s tidiest town a mere decade and a half late.

That smile turned to a full on belly laugh about 20 km later when I entered the next town – Naracoorte. Naracoorte was Australia’s tidiest town in 1994. Apparently the days when both the Barry Bonds-led Pittsburgh Pirates and Ace of Bass were belting out hits were the glory days for this little sliver of agricultural South Australia as well. No doubt the ’95 winner lurks on the horizon.

By the way, I should note that for the first time, small town Australia resembles what those of us in San Francisco think of when we think of small towns – tiny villages typically on the coast or in wine country packed with souvenir stores and coffee shops with wireless internet and espresso. To this point, small town Australia has meant a pub and a gas station (more often than not in the same building sharing a common cash register). Now I am seeing something more familiar from day trips out of San Francisco - a really scaled down version of the part of a city next to a tourist attraction. This is not a knock on the region, just a recognition that the area between Adelaide and Melbourne is built to serve tourists from Adelaide and Melbourne, not strictly locals. I mention this because I did not pay for an espresso drink until Perth. In Cairns and Darwin it was included with the room and I did not see it available anywhere else before Perth (several places in the Southwest). After all, I can get a cappuccino or latte (if I so desire) in Longville, Minnesota. Now I can get one here too and I suspect that will hold up the rest of the way. In a related development, drivers have stopped waving.

So we got into Coonawarra around 2pm. Coonawarra is a place where most of Australia’s best Cabernets are from. Several of the bigger wineries have their Cellar Door (tasting room) somewhere else (for example Penfolds is in Barossa although Penfolds Bin 128 uses Coonawarra fruit… Penfolds’ parent company does have a multi-brand tasting room, but I digress), but the wineries here were good as well. As always, the tasting room staff was generally helpful and engaging. I especially liked Yalumba and Balnaves Wineries. The photos are from Balnaves. We got several recommendations for where to stay in town (Penola), but went with the cheap option and are happy so far.

Tomorrow, we will go down to the coast, cross into Victoria following the Great Ocean Road (one of the great drives on earth) and stopping somewhere scenic.