There was no international travel but we had a few weeks away locally with one trip to Melbourne in Victoria and another to Orange via Canberra in New South Wales.
It was good to explore some wine regions (and quilt shops) in those places and en route.
Plenty of trips to Sydney as well for family and medical reasons. As far as the latter is concerned all was good.
On the sporting front we enjoyed the London Olympic Games immensely. Our satellite TV coverage was excellent and it was great to see the best, instead of just Australian performances which seem to be the focus of the free to air channels.
Rugby was another matter. Our local state team, the Waratahs, played very badly all year and the Australian Wallabies weren’t much better. The former team will have a new coach in 2013 but regrettably the latter won’t. Australia is stuck with the incumbent New Zealander! Could be more of the same for the national team in the upcoming season and with the British and Irish Lions Tour looming this is not a good thing to contemplate.
Our national cricket team has had a patchy year in all forms (Test, One Day, T20) of the game. But they are in rebuilding mode. In 2013 we again face the poms in England in a test series which is always a good battle.
Life on the farm has not been too fraught with problems. The 2012 vintage was a disaster. Continual wet weather hampered all efforts to keep the fungus out of the grapes. We eventually threw in the towel and decided not to harvest. Things are looking better for 2013.
We had a good calf drop in spring but sadly have lost two so far. It’s been a very bad year for ticks (wet weather related) and vets in the area have been aware they are taking their toll on new born farm animals including cattle, alpacas and goats. Nothing much can be done against this apparently. The paralysis tick is also particularly fatal for dogs and cats so lots of pour on and tick collars being sold.
As you can see from our wine list, a considerable range was consumed this year. Not too many bad ones.
The highlights this year were the wines out of the Orange wine region, the Hunter Valley Semillons and Verdelhos , the Clare Valley Rieslings as well as the Victorian Pinot Noirs. We are so spoilt for choice both from a local and imported point of view. And prices are still very good. The strong Australian dollar has hampered exports so suppliers are trying to get rid of excess stocks on the local market. For the same reason, imported wine has never been so cheap.
We shall continue our evaluation into 2013. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.
So that's another year gone.
We look forward to the new one.
All the best to my readers.
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