I had the worst night sleep I have ever had in my life! The traffic noise and the beeping horns did not stop all night. Our room was on the second floor, facing the street and had the added bonus of having the hotels neon sign just outside our window. When you live in the peace and quiet of the mountains it is hard to adjust to such a non-stop level of human activity outside. Things did not settle down until well after 1am. So, I woke up feeling like a wreck. Lorenza had the sense to put some ear plugs in not long after going to bed so she wondered what I was complaining about. Cyclos & Turtles We took a cyclo tour around town, stopping at various sites of interest like the Cathedral, the ... read more

23/2/07 - After 9 hours in economy you get a good idea of how live cattle feel getting shipped from Australia to the Middle East. The new Bangkok airport is huge and word is that it has a lot of problems, like runways cracking up - glad we only found that out after landing. Made it to our hotel about 11pm after an interesting cab ride, the driver asking us if we wanted to “go highway or not”, my response was “just take us the quickest way please”, he replied with “go highway or not Mister”. The thought crossed my mind that our cab drivers knowledge of Bangkok may have been as good as mine, so I figured “go highway” was the best bet. Our cabby seemed a happy go lucky kind of guy, he chatted ... read more

Satarvo Bianco is a very rare variety of wine only produced by a single winemaker in the foothills of the mountains west of the Hawkesbury. Our 2006 vintage is now in production, read on for the rivetting details ... Cleaning & Bargaining Saturday morning, Rob was up at 6am to prepare the equipment for our white wine making. With everything washed and steralised, he then set off to meet the truck coming from South Australia with our grapes. It was scheduled to arrive at 8am, but grape picking, the weather and long distance road transport logistics delayed the grapes arrival until midday. The truck driver looked happy to finally make it after 13 hours on the road. So, Rob and his father, Peter, met the truck and the entire Farillo family who are involved in the ... read more

Lorenza and I recently bottled our first vintage of Riesling. I am surprised, it tastes ok!... read more

Over the last month or so we have had a few overseas visitors drop into our place. One of the places we have taken them to in the local area is the Vale of Avoca Lookout at Grose Vale. There is a short fire trail to the lookout, which has been suffering some damage from off road vehicles, so it has now been fenced off near the lookout, where a rough parking area has now been built. Until a few years ago this spot was almost a local secret, but now there are 4WD tour buses taking folks there. The features of the area around the Vale of Avoca are dry ridge-tops, steep cliff faces and rocky outcrops, with views down into the valley of Burralow Creek, and the large boulder-ridden gorge of the Lower Grose ... read more