Australians refreshing themselves

At lunch today at Shelly’s Beach in Northern NSW, the couple at the next table thought I was a wowser, a puritan killjoy in the local lingo. For purely professional reasons, of course, I was just trying to see what they were drinking. As my mother and I were drinking water their entirely reasonable assumption was that I was sneering down my nose at their imbibing.

A kiwi tipple on the beach

As one does in Australia, we got chatting. “What’s it like?” I asked.

“The bloody kiwis,” he answered. “They’ve got such a glut of wine, they are blending from all over the country. But at least it’s cheap now. It’s orrite, though.”

I explained my interesting in terroir. It turned out they were wild francophiles who had been to Beaune. They knew the creed.

“Ain’t much terroir in this stuff,” she said. “Pity we finished it, or you coulda tasted some.”

The bottle on the left is the famous Oyster Bay. The second is a Giesen.

A lovely couple. They were off home “to relax a bit” and then open a bottle of Champers: the real stuff, a Piper Heidsieck.

I saw people at another table eating a huge pancake and mentioned that it looked like a good breakfast.

“No worries,” our fellow said. “We’ll see ya tomorrow morning then.”

I’ll keep you posted.