WAUGHS MOVE TO HEART OF MARANANGA

Pruning's done, which means it's time for the annual preview of the next release of reds from Michael and Annabelle Waugh's Greenock Creek Vineyards and Cellars in the Barossa.

Having had all their customer tastings in their home for decades, Michael and Annabelle have bought Derek Jolly's old restaurant/gallery/B&B complex right in the heart of Marananga, about midpoint between their Creek Block vineyard and home to the west, and the Roennfeldt vineyard and winery a couple of kilometres to the east. After a year's renovation, they're now open for tasting and sales in Marananga every day except Tuesday and their home can be their own once more.

That's Michael with the author and our good friends Vern and Jenny Schuppan below. A Booleroo Centre kid and a born go-kart ace, Vern has driven to victory at Le Mans and Monte Carlo, and won seconds and a third at Indianapolis, amongst other great successes during a life on the track. Read it all here.

Discussing autonomous vehicles with Vern's a bit like talking to a bloke who thinks that for now they should each have a man in uniform walking ahead of them with a police whistle and a red flag in the day, a lamp at night ... him and Jenny met at school in Whyalla.

Norty Schluter, Ronnie Lo, yours truly and Cheong Liew. You can read the local geology in the walls behind us: recent ironstone and ancient siltstone and schists covering some 750 million years. 

In 2020  Norty and his family will celebrate 150 years of continuous Schluter ownership of the legendary Greenock Creek Tavern. I suspect that's an Australian record. Norty laughs about having to stay alive 'til he's ninety, because it'll be such a party ... these group shots by Leo Davis ... That's a Barossadeutscher stock trough (below), hewn from a single trunk of red gum at Greenock Creek ... life musta bin tough ... photo by Philip White

The new wines will be available at Marananga from September 10th. From their fifty acres, the release includes five individual vineyard Shiraz wines, two Cabernets and a Grenache. 

After 15 years of dissatisfaction with the dry-grown bush vine Mataro he planted on the Creek, Michael has finally restrained its vigour sufficiently to release the first Greenock Creek Mataro. Asked why he didn't call it Mourvèdre, he said he thought that was an Italian motorbike.

Folks critical of high alcohol should wallow in the beautiful Cabernets, which sit at 12.5% (2014 home block) and 13.5% (2011 Roennfeldt's). The five individualistic Shiraz wines average 14.6 ... here's a rainbow over Marananga and Greenock Creek below, with the famous Seppeltsfield Para Grenache vineyard in the foreground ... photo Philip White