Day 6 - Syrah versus Shiraz

Day 5 started off with a tour of Calavo Avocado Processing Plant. They were a cooperative and have become a private growers company but with a very cold winter means that the fruit is smaller and there is less of it.

Its mostly an automated process now of grading and sizing with about 35 staff at the plant. The Avocados are kept at about 42F to stop the ripening process. The chillers were freezing.

Next it was off to Suz's favourite place so far, the fire station. Here in the USA firefighters are predominantly multiskilled and they respond to paramedic calls as well as fire. In fact emergency response calls are their highest number. We even had to have our photo taken with them as you can see. We did try to invite the Admin Captain and Battalion Chief to join us on the wine tour to no avail.

Jeffrey was very interested in the setup in comparison to what happens in Australia.

Then it was off to wine taste with Wes our driver courtesy of Kim and John Kelliher(Suzanne's host family) and owners of Grapeline Wine Tours. Grapeline offer a fantastic experience and service to anyone who visits the Temecula and soon to be Santa Barbara wine region. We went to 3 wineries Leonesse, Ponte and Faulkner.

Here in the USA Syrah is actually Shiraz, which I was pleased to find out, as I was missing my Shiraz.....

Lunch was divine and we were lucky to be joined by some fabulous Rotarians along the way. Steve and Julie Wallace and the fabulous Al came with us and Kim joined us for lunch.

The roses were spectcular at Ponte's, huge white standards in full bloom. Veronica at Leonesse was also excellent as she gave us a tour and we all learnt something. They now keep all their wines outside in stainless steel refrigerated tanks.

The people at Temecula have been so generous and kind and its been a real honour to spend time with some fantastic people. Last night was spent with host families doing a variety of activities.