Brekkie at Seasalt Dining, Bruce

One of our very favourite bloggers had recently been to Seasalt Dining for a Sunday breakfast, so, after countless visits to Ellacure (obviously my benchmark), I reluctantly suggested to Boyfriend that we should try something different and he reluctantly agreed.

On arriving to Seasalt Dining we really weren’t sure if it was open. There were plenty of cars in the carpark, but no one sitting outside. Granted, it was fuhreezing, but the mirrored windows on the restaurant suggested… emptiness. We were pleased to spot an ‘Open’ sign against the door, but disappointed to walk in (and this was about 10am) to see just one other couple there for breakfast. Hm.

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Eden Road 2009 Shiraz – The Seedling

Shout out! The Canberra Harvest Wine Festival is on this weekend! If you like wines (and if you like the sound of this wine), you may like to head along!

Eden Road - The Seedling - 2009 Shiraz
(note the marks on the bottle aren't from me!)

The Eden Road 2009 Shiraz – “The Seedling” – was purchased from the Belconnen Bottle-O. (It’s worth noting that the Belco bottleo is open til 11pm most nights, which is later than almost anywhere else in Canberra – it’s a great default if you’re off to a late night party!)  Fortunately, most bottleos in Canberra (even Dan Murphy’s) have dedicated sections of their stores to local wines. If you take a look, you’ll notice that the Canberra region is particularly partial to producing a good shiraz. This is great news for the Canberra wineries, because shiraz is still Australia‘s most loved wine.

Since my first review of the Jeir Creek Riesling last month, I’ve been on the look out for wines from the Canberra region which are $20 and under. From my completely unscientific research, there are very few. There are plenty of Canberra wines between $20-25, for just very few under! Given the wine glut and just how many wines are even $15 and under, I do wonder if Canberra might be a little unrealistic. To that end, all wines <$20 will be favoured until I run out! This wine was a perfectly reasonable $15.95. I’m not sure if this influences others (and particular people of my generation), but I really am influenced by a wine bottle‘s label. Eden Road’s labelling is great – simple and elegant – though the different wines end up looking quite similar!

 

A sniff of the 2009 “The Seedling” makes me think of mulberries and green chillies. It’s deeply coloured – purple-black. A first sip of the wine is almost fizzy on the tongue. I don’t recommend swirling this wine around in your mouth – it’s best enjoyed slowly sipped. I enjoyed this with a creamy blue vein cheese (from, you guessed it, Belco Coles!). Any creamy cheese (but particularly those with sharp flavours) would be well offset by the tang and fizziness (there’s no other way to describe it!) of this wine.

(For the record, the wine is described on the bottle as: “The Seedling Shiraz has aromas of blackberry and dark cherries that lead onto a plump and juicy palate with great length and elegance”. I don’t read these blurbs before I review the wine – largely because they don’t make sense to me.)

Cost: $15.95 from Belconnen Bottle-O

Worthwhile factor: Highly worthwhile. Will buy again. Support Canberra industry (more support = cheaper prices, right? Right?)

Want more? http://www.edenroadwines.com.au/ (They were recently rated a 5 star winery by James Halliday – props!)