Rosabrook Margaret River Chardonnay 2010

Summertime in McLaren Vale means long days, bathed in hot sunlight that leaves you reddened if you forget your sunscreen or hat longer than 10 minutes. Noisy cicadas sing in the gum trees and colourful parrots clean out your prized apple and pear trees while singing joyfully. I don’t have the heart to chase them away and don’t mind sharing. It amazes me that anything survives in the hot, dry spells. 3 days over 40, where the mercury fails to drop below 30 overnight. Dust clouds kick up when you walk over the straw yellow stubble where your soft, rich, green lawn was just months ago.

Still, the grapes continue to swell on the vines. Their leaves remain vivid green against the brown of the Willunga Hills, tendrils still firm and reaching for the trellis. Marvelous things, grape vines. Their old roots tap down into the water table nearly as deep as the ancient Eucalypts, which drop their limbs in the hot summer wind gusts.

This is not weather for red wine. Unless it’s chilled, I can’t bring myself to drink it. Out of the wine room Mr Wino pulls this little beauty, as we wait for the cooling sea breezes to arrive. Cheese takes no time to reach room temperature once taken out of the fridge these days, with a dollop of Tuckers Spicy Cherry paste and their matching crackers, we have ourselves aperitivo, Aussie Christmas style. Here’s to you Australia, your sunburnt summers and resilient flora and fauna. Go for your life on the fruit trees. I’m impressed by your mere survival.