Valentine's Day

Our usual beautiful, sunny Perth was overcast and humid yesterday so instead of heading to the beach for Valentine's Day, we headed to the hills. Just 45 minutes from our house, we were on the Chittering Valley Wine Trail, a winding loop through the Darling Ranges. Of the eight wineries available to us, we made it to three. Our first stop was Stringybark Winery where we were disappointed as the cellar door was shut, the staff readying for a crowd of Valentine's Day diners at their restaurant. Our second stop was at Western Range winery. We briefly visited with the server and tasted several nice whites, including a late harvest white which we enjoyed enough to purchase a case. It was not too dry, not too sweet, but just right for pairing with Thai, Indian, and seafood, three of our favorite indulgences.

Our third stop was at Briery Estate. The owners Christine and Ron met us at our car, welcomed us onto the veranda of their 90 year old farmhouse overlooking their vines and fruit trees and started pouring wine for us from their broad selection. We tasted 12 wines and they have five reds which we didn't taste. The one which caught my attention was a varietal I have never tasted, never even heard about, furment. Furment is a late harvest Hungarian vine producing a white grape which is an excellent host to botrytis, the noble rot, hence the pure, slight sweetest of the wine. Briery sells it under the label Fermento. Cheese tray pairing will be sublime. We also bought the Briery 10 Year Old Muscat Liqueur, of course. We never taste a great muscat that we can pass up. To complete the case, we bought several light rosés and a heavier velvety rosé, a dry grenache, a viognier, and a chenin blanc.

We arrived home in time to walk to the beach for the sunset. It was a perfect day for us.