Moodys Wines at Willow Vale Mill, Laggan, Southern Highlands

My old friend, Graham Liney, runs this wonderful guest house in the NSW Southern Highlands at Laggan. Willow Vale Mill is the original grain mill building of Laggan, which Graham has converted to a comfortable guest house for relaxing weekends away.

Every Saturday Graham serves a large and copious roast dinner with several meats and home cooked local vegetables, and his speciality varieties of potatoes. His sweets are also to die for. But it is all enhanced by the relaxed atmosphere, Graham’s warm welcome, and the roaring fire in the fireplace.

Willow Vale serves Moody’s Wines, as well as other good NSW wines. Those olive trees also produce excellent olives, and Graham’s vegetable beds provide artichokes, spinach, broccoli and a variety of herbs.

Before dinner, the kitchen is worth a visit, to watch the maestro at work, and share a slurp with him!

Moody’s “Rosé de Fontenay” in Provence

I sent two bottles of my Rosé to my family in Provence. They have lined them up with the other drinks they were going to enjoy at midday!

2011 Sauvignon Blanc

has been bottled and is now on sale. Once again it is in half bottles, because of the reduced harvest due to the rainy season. Like its predecessor, the 2010 Sauvignon, it has a Read more…

Cassoulet and Shiraz – very popular!

Saturday 9 April dawned bright and sunny and when the first guests arrived, the verandah was bathed in sunshine, and… they kept on coming! Read more…

Chris Derrez, winemaker for Moody’s

The local paper recently wrote an article about my wine maker, Chris: The craft of vinification is not only a blend of flavours, mouthfeel and aromas, but it is also a mixture of alchemy, tradition and innovation. The French wine industry has a strong and noble history that has been traced back to the sixth century BC, but for Chris Derrez, who describes himself as a maker of wines rather than a winemaker, his home country’s traditions are confining and lack free expression. Read more…