Wines on the Waterfront

This weekend a bunch of friends and I went to Wines on the Waterfront, part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at the Melbourne Docklands. There were cellar door tastings from about 40 local wineries, and many people were excited to take part in tasting as many wines as possible:



I was on my last bottle of white at home, so I needed to restock. I got a light yet surprisingly bold unwooded chardonnay from bogie man wines, and a tasty, smooth sauvignon blanc from Shelmerdine vineyards. The best wine I tried the whole day was the moscato from T'Gallant, but they were sold out so I couldn't take a bottle home with me.

One vineyard (who shall remain nameless), had a semillon sauvignon blanc that had a hint of green capsicum (bell pepper) in its nose and taste...I HOPE that they were not aiming for that.

We were quite commited to our wine tasting endeavours*. So committed, in fact, that we bought 4 more bottles of wine to continue tasting after the event was over. We walked along the docks, enjoying the city.

"You know, I've noticed that I seem to get drunk in the daytime a lot more often in Australia," I said.

"Yeah!" was K's response, followed by a high five.

We bet P 50 bucks that he couldn't climb to the top of a lightpole in 10 seconds. The passing security guards said that they bet if he did it there would be cuffs waiting for him when he got back down. So, we wisely decided not to have him climb the pole. Well, at least THAT pole.

We had him climb the next one.



But, as we were all completely pissed (drunk), we were only about 20 feet away from the security guards. They had a little chat with the boys while we ran and hid behind a boat.



Unfortuneately, what you don't see in this picture is the fact that D (green stripes) had a full glass of wine in his hand. So the guards are telling P that he can't be climbing poles, and D is sitting there agreeing with them and shaking a finger at P, all the while sipping on his wine in front of the security.

Thank goodness for the Australian good-natured tolerance to public drunkeness, and that we remembered to have P take the wine bottle out of his back pocket before he climbed the pole.



* I was actually quite happy to be enjoying wine again. Earlier that week at a department retreat I had WAY overdone it with the Chardonnay at the dinner and consequent party. WAAYYY overdone it. The drunkest I had ever been in my life. Seriously. Worst. Hangover. Ever. I was relieved that the experience had not ruined me for wine for the rest of my life.