This wine originates with a story that started almost two years ago. The story is not about the wine itself really. But this is a good wine to me because of the memories it conjures up not, because of any aroma it contains or its tannin level.

Roughly 18 months ago, I took a solo vacation to Fiji. You can read about that trip in my travel blog, sandsolo.home.blog, which has been laying sadly dormant since March.

After a few days on the main island at a Westin resort surrounded by mainly families, I took a sea plane navigated by a barefoot pilot to the Paradise Cove Resort. Well actually, the sea plane landed in the middle of the ocean and a dingy from the resort picked me up there. See, the Paradise Cove Resort was on a tiny island and that was in fact the only thing on the island. The island was small enough that you could kayak around the entire island, which I did, very slowly on my last morning,

I had traded in a vacation surrounded by families for a vacation surrounded by couples. It was off season and it was not too crowded at all. That really added to the whole “off the grid” vibe it had going on, being a tiny island in the middle of nowhere with fritzy internet.

Since the resort was the only thing on the island, all meals and activities available were whatever the resort provided. There was a plethora of activities to choose from and I signed up for as many as I could. I visited a village on a nearby island, I went line fishing, I snorkeled right off the beach everyday, and I signed up for Sunset Champagne Tubing. I realized this was going to be a romantic outing for couples, but tubing sounded fun and it had me at “champagne” anyway. I was alone and only had myself to amuse.

To make a long story short, I was tethered in an inner-tube to two couples as we tried to elegantly drink champagne while bobbing up and down in rather rough ocean waves, trying not to spill and have conversations while laughing at how ridiculous the scenario was.

One couple was from New Zealand and I had seen them at the pool enjoying adult beverages at all hours – they were super fun. The other couple was an Australian and a Brazilian who resided in Australia and were two incredibly intelligent woman with great senses of humor to boot. We ended up hanging out a few more nights, keeping the bartending staff up later than they wanted to be. We connected on Social Media and kept it touch after our trip was over. The Aussies constantly tried to convince me to visit them, showing me pictures of single, straight men they knew and dangling the Barossa Valley wine region in front of me ( I definitely will visit them at some point!)

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. I got a message from one of the Aussies asking if I would do a Zoom wine hang out with them for their 15th anniversary of being together. We planned to get the same wine and drink it together. “Would 9:30pm Saturday night work?” Of course it would!

Um, yeah, they meant 9:30pm Melbourne time. Which was 7:30am Philadelphia time. I had agreed to drink with them at 7:30am. I hoped they were ready for morning Jen. (She is not pleasant.)

We agreed to source a California Zin and something from the Barossa Valley, and this Torbreck was a wine we could both get our hands on.

So there I was last Saturday morning, bright and early, no coffee or breakfast, drinking wine with friends on the other side of the world, literally.

I had a blast, followed by a very unproductive afternoon. I was not nearly awake and alert enough to remember anything about this wine.

So I’m trying it again now. It’s a Rhone-style GSM blend, Aussie style.

I definitely get some meatiness on the nose, like steak, covered in oregano. There is also this strange sweat scent, which is odd yet I don’t hate it. Its like sweaty earth and that sounds weird but I stand by it. I also get jammy dark fruit and some choco-cola oak notes.

This wine is not knocking my socks off, but I’m not hating it and it’s certainly interesting. I would drink it again.

I would classify this as good wine though because it’s going to forever remind me of my funny Aussie friends. Once taste will transport me back to one of the few bright spots during the 2020 pandemic when I spent a Saturday morning with good people on the other side of the world who were somehow living the same Covid-19 experience as I was, distracting myself from the horrid state of the union with good wine and even better people.

Cheers, mates.