Pinelli Wines and a Windy Creek in Swan Valley

The stomach is still not right, and have not had a thing to eat all day, other than a couple of black coffees, the old people say you shouldn’t lay down for illness, so this morning I got out into the sunshine and pulled a few weeds, mowed the lawn, did the edges and I was feeling so good I went next door and pulled some of their weeds!

Then I came to my senses and I said, Princess, I said, let’s go to the valley, pick up a couple of flagons of that Pinelli wine we like so much and relax a little. A few hours later and we are home now, I wasn’t feeling well enough to drive so I nominated Gorgeous to be skipper, it was really weird I couldn’t walk straight I was so dizzy, which now when I reflect back is really funny, because the dizziness has gone, but I still think I cannot walk to straight!

We headed straight up Morley Drive to Lord St, had a bit of a detour through one of Jo’s old neighbourhoods, the place where she had lived had been knocked over and a new place built in its place, but it was a priceless seeing the joy on her face as she came across things she remembered from her childhood, and as life goes, it is not always the destination we seek that makes life special, it is the little detours we make along the way.

From here we gunned the little Jazz to Bernara Rd and into Bennett St, 200m down and right into Pinelli’s place.

Pinelli’s is a place I have been wanting to visit for so many years now, I was fortunate enough to take Dan Pinelli one of the wine making brothers, away with me on one of my work trips many years ago, on our return Dan was kind enough to drop a box of home grown veg and a few bottles of plonk, all from the family home at my door, and it was all so delicious, I especially remember his Dad’s rockmelons, they were the biggest yummiest rockmelons I have ever tried, yummo.

Anyway we rocked up at Pinelli’s and they were so nice there, we already knew what we wanted, but it was like have you tried this wine, what about this you might like this one, good thing Jo Girl was driving! From here we ventured up West Swan Rd and found some little place on top of a hill, where we tried some magnificent Merlot, had to take a couple of those and as I did the guy tells me about some special he had on offer, that saw me walk out with a third bottle of wine, a Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay and I saved $3.00 on the deal, still can’t figure that one out but was happy all the same. We grabed a map of the valley from this guys bar also and looked up a winery we had been told about earlier, found it on the map and roared off in anticipation of finding a fine drop, and find a fine drop we did!

Windy Creek Estate is sort of out the back of Herne Hill, but well worth the effort to go off track a little, here they offered a choice of six whites, six reds and four fortified wines. I had started the day in on the reds, so I skipped the six whites and the first red, so I am going to have to go back soon, but... what I did try was amazing, and they got better and better as I got into each new wine. By the time I got to the fortified wines I was in heaven, they were absolutely outstanding! Whilst we were there the lady kept offering us biscuits and cheese, and then some homemade relishes her Mother had made, in the end I relented and tried an eggplant and capsicum relish, OH MY GOD! it was soooo good, we really, well I will rephrase that, I really did not want to leave, it was so much fun trying such beautiful wine and yummy eats, but we did have a home to return to, so I chose a few of my favourites and took them with me.

I have to tell you we picked up some bargains in the Valley today!

It is after days like today that you realise just how lucky we are here in Perth, we have such beautiful weather and we are all only minutes away from some of the most beautiful places to enjoy that sunshine, Swan Valley, for me rates as one of the best places on earth to do so on a day like today it doesn’t come any better!

Our Swan Valley bounty!