Howards Lane

I’ll start here with a disclaimer; I am in no way a wine buff. BUT, I know what I like, and this winery, and more importantly their wines, is great.

To make it even better, the place is bike related. Well to me anyway. I stumbled across it when I should have been doing a practise lap at an 8hr enduro race last year. Wine seemed way more attractive at the time.

Now onto the booze, after all that’s what you are here for, not stories of me avoiding pain.

The winery is located just off the Hume Highway at Mittagong, just down the road from some great riding at Penrose. They produce a range of wines (approx 8000 bottles a year individually numbered) including Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot to name a few, but for the purposes of this alcoholics review lets look at my favourites.

Heres what the website www.howardslane.com.au has to say

2003 Unwooded Chardonnay
Crisp and fruity. Pears and nectarines with lifted floral aromas. Good length on the palate and lovely natural acidity, typical of our cool climate conditions.

2004 Light Red
Bursting with crushed strawberries and raspberries with a soft natural acidity giving the wine good structure. This lovely elegant balance is heightened by a touch of residual sugar. A great summer wine drunk lightly chilled.

Now I don’t know much about the wine mumbo jumbo stated above, but I can attest that both of these drops have turned me into a regular customer. Each trip south results in a planed stop to refill the home cellar. Sadly the 2003 Unwooded Chardonnay is soon to be gone, with most of the stock depleted on my last visit.

So does the wine go well with the chicken?????

I’ve never been one to say what a wine goes well with (just drink it and enjoy it I say), so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the beverages produced here are very fine indeed.

If you’re even remotely into wine and you’re in the area, drop in and visit this place. The owners, and their dog, are very friendly people and the wine even better.