After acclimatising in Sydney and meeting my group we have headed about four hours north to Orange County. This cool climate region is producing some amazing wines.

The huge diurnal range gives the wines fantastic natural acidity, the volcanic soil gives the wines a distinctive minerality and also being cool climate the natural alcohol levels are refreshingly low.Tonight we were concentrating on the whites – with Chardonnay being the most important grape variety in Orange. Lovely restrained styles with careful use of oak.  Two favourites were Philip Shaw’s The Architect Chardonnay 2012 and Logan Chardonnay 2012.

Just a few of the wines tasted this evening!

In typical Aussie fashion dinner was enjoyed by a roaring fire next to the vineyard! A memorable way to end day two!