Victoria Grog Files

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Victoria, AU

We had two opportunities to check out the wine regions of Victoria.  The first was just after we finished up our time working at a horse racing stable and the second is when we decided a mandatory piece of the great Australian road trip with Tiffany’s brother Chris was to jump-start his education on “How to find wines I like?”  While both visits were brief, they both netted solid results on quality vino.

Unfortunately, it was easier to find the beers of Victoria elsewhere in the country than the wines.

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Queensland Grog files

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Queensland, AU

 Greg has a long-standing belief that tropical climates produce some of the best wine.  His logic comes from visiting wineries in Florida.

Yes, Florida has wineries.  We’ll get to that later.

The short of it is that the environment does not lend itself well to heavy wines.  The climate of the tropics in general inspires beverages that are a little lighter, a little sweeter with fruit flavors often at the forefront and best served well-chilled.

wine coozyWhere, yes, you can actually make use of a personal wineglass cozy.

So the tropics pretty much inspire the exact kinds of wine we enjoy and the single winery we found up here did not disappoint.

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Australia Grog Files

Australia

Well since we’re going over adventures in outback bar tending, it’s probably about time we started updating the grog files to keep us with us.

We’ll be doing a new grog files for each state we visited in Australia but this week is all about our overall experience, which can be summed up this way:

Australia has a great libations industry –

It’s just not where you’d expect to find it.

Australian Mojito

What this pretty much means is that as long as you avoid the beer, Australia has a lot to offer.

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A Hut Warden’s Life

French Ridge hut
Mt. Aspiring National Park, NZ

Notices posted on the kitchen wall of French Ridge hut:

Seriously, we freaking love these people.

By now we’ve mentioned it enough that you’re probably asking “Hey guys?  What are these huts and wardens and whatnot you keep talking about?”

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NZ South Island Grog Files

New Zealand – South Island

Breweries

Monteith’s

Type: Brewery

Rating: 4 sheets to the wind

Website: http://www.monteiths.co.nz/

Notes: When called back to a bachelor party in Las Vegas for his own former best man, Greg could have brought his choice of any variety of drinks…but he chose Monteith’s original ale.  A beer deemed “delicious” by the at-that-time bachelor & assorted cadre of miscreants.  Continue reading “NZ South Island Grog Files”

NZ North Island Grog Files

New Zealand – North Island

Soft Drinks

L & P

Type: Soft Drink

Rating: 3 sheets to the wind

Website: http://www.cokecareers.co.nz/products
(yeah, Coke bought ‘em.  That’s globozation for ya.)

Notes: It would be wrong to have a page about the drinks of New Zealand and not mention Lemon & Paeroa.  It’s the New Zealand soft drink and we’re really not sure why it hasn’t become a world-wide sensation!  Like you’ll see in other places on this page, New Zealand does not save their best efforts for “the good stuff” because even their widely distributed common drinks are just excellent.  Continue reading “NZ North Island Grog Files”

Penguins and Wine

Marlborough, NZ

The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!

Stepping off the Interislander Ferry had us stepping into one of the major wine regions of New Zealand: Marlborough.  Where sheep, kittens, vineyards and Kiwis all seem to have figured out a way to coexist:

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Lone Star Wines

More from the Grog Files:

So spending a month in The Lone Star State helping our friend out and loaning him Greg to do duties as best man gave us only a few evenings to ourselves during which time we explored the local specialties.  Not enough to wander off wine tasting but at least a chance to drop by the local H.E.B. and pick up a bottle or two.  In this installment of our adventures in international drinking we explore some of the wines of Texas.  We know, we know, “What!? Texas makes wine!?”

Why yes, we discovered, yes they do. And oh so much more….

Texas Grog Files

Grog Files Double Header

Ok so Tonga only has the one beer but really, anything they made after MAKA would have just paled by comparison anyway.  That beer was a-freaking-mazing!

We felt bad though, only having the one drink to share with everyone.  So instead of leaving y’all hanging we’re giving you our wine findings from our honeymoon in Tuscany, Italy.  This includes the wine we like so much we brought enough home to share with our wedding party!

As you can see, Greg’s sister was pretty happy about that.

So from South Pacific to Europe- this month is a grog files double-header of some of the best drinks this planet of ours has to offer!

Kingdom of Tonga

 

 

Italy

Breath Test FAIL!

Auckland, New Zealand

Since the topic of drinking came up a few times over the past few entries let’s let Greg share with you a little story about something that happened to us in New Zealand and an important lesson he learned from it:

Greg: Remember how we got this amazing invite to have Christmas with a Kiwi MasterChef contestant and his family?

So yeah, duh, we did that.  This dinner lasts several hours.  Several.  As we’ve said, Kiwis are really nice people and if you befriend a really nice person and they invite you over for a feast…well you should expect to be there a while.  At the very beginning of the afternoon I had 2 glasses of wine with everyone.  After that, I called it quits because I was the one who was going to drive us home that evening and you know, better safe than sorry right?  Besides, they had Coke Zero so it’s not like I was deprived or anything.

20101224-NZ-road-trip-w-Ronni-4 Christmas treeLike I said, we were at this dinner party for a long time.  We had hors d’oeuvres, we had dinner, we had dessert, we talked, we mingled, it was great.  Everything you could possibly want as a traveler invited into the home of a local for Christmas.  Hours flew by.  Tiffany even made key lime pie from scratch, or perhaps I should say from crumbs, as you previously saw I was involved in that.

So it’s pushing midnight before we’re ready to leave.  My mother, who has joined us for the holidays, asked if I’m Ok to drive.  It wasn’t a reflection on how I’m was acting or anything, it’s just my mom.  She asks.  She’s proactively safe and good like that.

“Yeah mom, I’m fine, I haven’t had a drink since before we had food and only 2 glasses then.”

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