Before Ben won the 2004 Penfolds Creating Excellence Award in the Taste Down Under competition, I was only vaguely familiar with the brand. Fortunately, Ben’s award gave us another reason to buy Penfolds, particularly in preparation for our trip to Australia and I was eager to get to know the wines a little bit better before turning up at Magill Estate.

Our trip back from the Adelaide Hills included a visit in Hahndorf.
This delightful village feels like a little bit like Germany (Prussia actually) transplanted to Australia. The area was settled in 1839 by free settlers (including the Hahn family) from good Prussian Lutheran stock. South Australian’s never tire of telling anyone who will listen that there were no convict settlements in their colony. 

In our last issue we referred to Koalas as Koala Bears. One observant reader kindly pointed out to us that they are, in fact, not bears, but another wonderful example of Australia's unique marsupial collection. Therefore we amend our statement to note that what was most special about our KOALA sighting was that it was not in a wildlife park or zoo, but a la naturale. Thank you for bearing with us!