RED EARTH
Coonawarra, a small and remoted wine region halfway Adelaide and Melbourne, it is known for the terra rossa (red soil). It is a strip of about 15 kilometers long and about 1,5 kilometers wide and has a red iron-rich, fertile top layer in the bottom. Sometimes it is a more then a meter deep, in other places only about 30 centimers. Underneath is a limestone layer where vine roots are not really able to grow, so plowing is a way to help young plants to find their way between the mix of red and white soil. Terra rossa may sound exotic and rugged, the Coonawarra landscape is a bit boring: flat. The weather is even not so nice: after two days of clouds and cold, I almost feel like I am back in the Netherlands. Except of course the enormous vineyards, which produce very good wines.

Parker Coonawarra Estate wines has called its best line of wine 'Terra Rossa' which of I find the cabernet sauvignon (2005) the best. This is a no brainer, because this grape is the local hit. The wine, dark in color, smells and tastes like berries, soft and full bodied, with nice firm tannins in the aftertaste. Yet I leave the tasting room with a cabernet-merlot blend (2005) from another line of Parker: 'Favourite Son'. It smells like berries and dusty earth and is smoother, easier, a bit fruitier. But above all, only 13 euro and more then affordable.

Opening hours
Daily from 10.00 to 16.00.
This article was created on March 16, 2009 by Trouw Journalist Remke de Lange. For more wine articles: http://www.remkedelange.nl/wijn.php?archief=2009&artikel_id=527.