Old Cars, Old Wine.

On Sunday the 14th the McLaren Vale Vintage Classic rolled into town, raising funds for charities such as Laklinyeri Beach House which provides a holiday space for families of children in palliative care or with complex care needs.  Close to 600 vintage cars rolled down McLaren Vale's main street before dispersing to wineries and cellar doors across the region where food, drink, and festivities took place.  The fleet of vintage Rolls Royce, which would attend the parade for the first time, would be parking at the Tintara Winery which was barely half a kilometre from our front door.

Off we went to see a car parade then, leaving the fluffy dog behind to make sad eyes at us through the front door as we left.

There were cars of all shapes, sizes, and states of repair: a fleet of vintage police cars; everyone's favourite kombi; big whales of cars so long that they nearly beached themselves on the raised pedestrian crossing; sputtering old things only one internal combustion engine removed from a horse and carriage; and souped up cars causing palpitations in small boys along the street.  A very dedicated young woman rang the last lap for every car with as much volume at the end as she had at the beginning.

A cyclist on an electric bike caused havoc by tootling across the road in the middle of the parade, blissfully unaware of the volunteer running after him shouting apoplectic warning about large fines as he pedaled off into the distance.  Someone up a side street decided to go grocery shopping and attempted to exit over the traffic cones and into the parade, causing further apoplexy and dire warnings of retribution from the same volunteer.  Through it all the cars kept coming and no-one got run into or over, and not a single car stalled or overheated, which was really quite remarkable.

By the time the CFS truck chivvied the last vintage car along the street the Rolls Royce gang had settled in to Tintara, so we went over for a closer look.

The winery was established in 1861 by Alexander Kelly who was a bit of an overachiever, being a medical physician and winemaker who, in his spare time, wrote educative books on making wine in Australia. The winery had a viewing platform from which I could watch the business of viticulture in action.

Very similar to a dairy at first glance.  Just missing the cows.

Tintara holds the distinction of having produced the oldest surviving bottle of Australian wine, an 1867 Tintara Vineyard claret which was on display in the viewing area.  The claret achieved the honour through a process of elimination when the previous record holder (an 1864 bottle of Pewsey Vale Cabernet Sauvignon) was accidentally broken by an office cleaner at Christie's auction house.  Lessons were duly learned: a sturdy perspex box protected Tintara's claret from butterfingered cleaners and/or potentially clumsy members of the public

Did the office cleaner lose their job after the tragedy of the broken wine bottle?  Unfortunately we'll never know.

By the time we finished with the dramatic story of the oldest wine bottle in Australia the Rolls Royce gang was packing up to go home and the wine crowd had settled in for the night.

We went home to face the reproach of the dog.