Ben Neville took the lucky DRINKSTER - and key folks from McLaren Vale and Fleurieu tourism, the South Australian Tourism Commission and Wine Australia - to lunch at the bottom of the little-recognised Onkaparinga Gorge. The Gorge, which looks and feels like the wildest canyons of the Flinders Ranges, is not widely recognised because it's a very difficult place to get in and out of, regardless of the fact that it forms the northern rim of the major viticulture section of McLaren Vale, and is only forty minutes from Adelaide. (Unfortunately, the northern half of The Vales has been eaten by villa rash and dormitoria, which the Labor government's McLaren Vale and Barossa Character Preservation Act finally promises to put a halt to. That's one good reason for both the big regions to praise Bacchus that today, with help of independent Geoff Brock, they formed the new South Australian government. Brock's electorate of Frome includes some of the Southern Flinders Ranges vineyards and all of Clare.) Ben's Off Piste 4WD Tours specialises in showing off secret and wild bits of the south. With Chook's Little Winery Tours, we also visited other major geological sites, beautiful vineyards at the end of harvest, and Noon's Winery, for a taste of the new ferments. Nigel Rich, of the Elbow Room restaurant, made us this memorable lunch amongst the River Red Gums ... photos by Ben Neville
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