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The Wonderful Wine Regions of South Australia

August 13, 2013 / Bullz-Eye Staff

Consisting of over 200 cellar doors and featuring many of the best drops in Aus, the South Australian wine trail is a must-do for every wine lover. Best of all, everything is in driving distance from Adelaide, meaning that arranging airport transfers, organizing transport and booking suitable Adelaide accommodation is exceptionally easy. The following is a guide to five of the best areas on the South Australian wine trail, with tips on which cellar doors and wineries you must visit.

Barossa

The Barossa Valley is where Aussie wines were born and is home to some of the oldest vines in the country (160 years!). Located approximately 70kms from the heart of Adelaide, it’s a beautiful area, full of history and architecture from the original German settlers. Best known for its big, bold shiraz, Barossa is home to some of the most famous names in the Aussie wine industry, including Wolf Blass, Jacobs Creek, Yalumba and of course, Penfolds. The nearby Eden Valley is also part of the Barossa region and is a quaint spot known for its award-winning riesling production. Not only is the Barossa known for its top drops, it’s also a haven for foodies. It is home to a range of wonderful restaurants and some amazing cheese companies. Check out the Barossa Valley Cheese Company for a complete food and wine experience.

McLaren Vale

McLaren Vale is a red wine lover’s paradise. With over 70 cellar doors, it is best known for its deep, dark shiraz, flavoursome cabernet sauvignon and prizewinning grenache. Some of the must-sees include Chapel Hill Winery, Geoff Merrill Wines, Rosemount Estate and Zimmerman Wines. The boutique Chalk Hill is also a must-visit with a proud history of wine-making dating back six generations. If you have a more organic preference, check out the Battle of Bosworth and Spring Seed Wines. Finish your trip with a follow-up beer at the Vale Ale Brewery.

Coonawarra

Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon is a staple of the Australian wine industry. The biggest wine area on the Limestone Coast, its terra rossa soil is credited for the region’s success. Although it sits 375kms from Adelaide, it’s worth the jaunt. Out of its 24 cellar doors, some of the best include Bowen Estate, Brand’s Laira Coonawarra, Wynns Coonawarra Estate and Redman Wines. Another highlight is the Coonawarra Wine Gallery, where you can various range of local wines and treat yourself to cheese platters and coffee.

Clare Valley

Located approximately 120kms from Adelaide, Clare Valley is home to some of the best in Aussie riesling. Another of Australia’s oldest wine regions, it’s full of attractions and activities including restaurants, art galleries and events, making it a hot-spot for tourists. The area is generally made up of boutique producers. Some of the best names on the riesling trail are some of the most renowned producers in all of Australia, including Jim Barry Wines, Tim Adams Wines, Edredge Wines, Taylors Wines and Annies Lane.

Adelaide Hills

Sitting 20 minutes from Adelaide, the gorgeous scenic views offered by Adelaide Hills makes for a lovely afternoon excursion in the crisp midwinter weather. Being a cool climate region, Adelaide Hills produces chardonnay, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc and riesling. The region’s style is elegant and premium, which has led to its national and international success. With over 40 cellar doors, Adelaide Hills offers something for everyone, regardless of palate and preference. K1 by Geoff Hardy is a must-see, as are Bird in Hand, Leabrook Estate and Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard. Adelaide Hills is also known for its fabulous food, wine and music events. Look online before you go to see if anything coincides with your trip.

Photo credit: badjonni / Foter / CC BY-SA

About the Author: Dale McKenzie is a passionate wine drinker, wine writer and occasional wine judge. His dream is to retire on a seven-acre vineyard block in the Margaret River.

Lifestyle, Travel, Vices

Adelaide Aussie wine Barossa chardonnay Clare Valley Coonawarra Edredge Wines Jim Barry Wines McLaren Vale pinot noir riesling sauvignon blanc South Australia South Australia wine Taylors Wines Tim Adams Wines Wine wine regions wine tour wineries

Car Review: 2013 Infiniti QX56 4WD

August 13, 2013 / Staff

Among the full-size SUV crowd, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better looking entry than the 2013 Infiniti QX56 4WD with its top to bottom inspired design. After spending a week driving the QX56, you’ll realize just how much luxury can be squeezed into a condo on wheels.

EXTERIOR

The exterior of the 2013 Infiniti QX56 4WD is simply stunning, as the folks at Infiniti have put together the complete package with this high-end machine. The Infiniti QX is designed to attract and hold viewers’ attention, conveying its underlying sense of power and strength. The bold, front chrome grille is flanked by automatic on/off bi-functional xenon headlights with windshield wiper interlock and integrated front fog lights. Adaptive Front lighting System (AFS) with auto-leveling headlights and headlight washers add to the list of options.

Other exterior features include LED taillights, heated and power-folding sideview mirrors with integrated turn signals, courtesy lights and reverse tilt-down feature, body color running boards, body color integrated front and rear splashguards built into the wheel arches, roof rails, a power-sliding tinted glass moonroof and a power rear liftgate. A front underbody spoiler, functional rear liftgate spoiler and redesigned side mirrors help provide aerodynamics of 0.36 Cd and zero lift. The QX’s strong presence is accented by the powerful wheel and tire combinations, including 22-inch, 9-spoke forged aluminum-alloy wheels with 275/50R22 all-season tires that demand respect.

INTERIOR

I have friends who spent big bucks on designing their homes or condos that can’t touch the luxurious feel of the 2013 Infiniti QX56 4WD! The QX’s world-class inner sanctum offers a comfortable space and personal controls for every occupant. It features standard 7-passenger seating capacity, with 8-passenger capacity available with the second row 60/40-split folding bench seat. Leather-appointed seating is standard for all three rows. Even more luxurious semi-aniline leather seating surfaces in our Deluxe Touring Package with new third row perforation and stitching added for 2013 to match the front two rows. The driver’s seat is 10-way power adjustable, including 2-way power lumbar support. It features a standard dual occupant memory system for the driver’s seat, steering wheel and outside mirrors. The front passenger’s seat is 8-way power adjustable, including 2-way power lumbar support. Heated front seats are standard, with climate-controlled (heating and cooling functions) front seats and heated second row seats, and the second row captain’s chairs offer a tip-up function for easy third row entry/exit. Also standard is a heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel which drivers will truly appreciate in colder months, and a 16.6 cubic foot cargo space for luggage is provided with the third row seat up. When the third row seat is folded, the flat load floor offers a wide versatile space for carrying cargo and recreational gear.

Car Reviews, Cars

Infiniti Infiniti QX luxury SUV

Vegas comes to Ladbrokes with Launch of New Gaming Platform

August 13, 2013 / Bullz-Eye Staff

Ladbrokes.com has announced the launch of Ladbrokes Vegas, as part of a brand new partnership with Playtech.

Lifestyle

Blu Tuesday: Olympus Has Fallen, Girls and More

August 13, 2013 / Jason Zingale

Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.

“Olympus Has Fallen”

WHAT: When former Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) gets trapped inside the White House following a terrorist attack, he must rely on his special skills to rescue the President (Aaron Eckhart) from his captors before they detonate the country’s entire nuclear stockpile on domestic soil.

WHY: Antoine Fuqua may have beat Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” to the punch by being the first Presidential action flick out of the gate, but not without the final product suffering as a result. The special effects, in particular, look a little unpolished (undoubtedly due to its tight post-production schedule), and although it features an excellent cast, many of the actors are wasted, perhaps none more so than Eckhart, who’s given very little to but grimace and grit his teeth. It’s also completely ridiculous in just about every way, from an unidentified Black Hawk flying straight into Washington, D.C. (when it would have been shot down as soon as it entered U.S. airspace), to North Korean terrorists overtaking one of the country’s most heavily guarded buildings in a matter of minutes. The film takes a while to get going, but once Banning gets into full stealth mode, “Olympus Has Fallen” becomes quite enjoyable – a poor man’s “Die Hard” in the best sense possible.

EXTRAS: In addition to a making-of featurette titled “Under Surveillance,” there are four more featurettes on the cast, special effects, stunts and the Black Hawk sequence, as well as a short blooper reel.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

“Girls: Season Two”

WHAT: The further adventures of Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) and her group of twenty-something friends – Marnie (Allison Williams), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) – as they traverse the ups and downs of adulthood in New York City.

WHY: I had a very love-hate relationship with the first season of “Girls,” but Season Two is such a complete train wreck that it made me want to stop watching the show altogether. Dunham has created one of the most unlikable protagonists on TV (between her coke-fueled meltdown and the Patrick Wilson episode, she hits an all-time low), and Williams’ laughably insecure Marnie isn’t too far behind. In fact, the female characters have so few redeeming qualities – even Mamet’s lively Shoshanna resorts to some bad behavior this season – that it’s a wonder how the audience is supposed to keep rooting for them. Thankfully, their male co-stars at least make “Girls” tolerable. Season One standout Adam Driver continues his strange but endearing performance as Hannah’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, while Alex Karpovsky seizes his expanded role with aplomb. Unfortunately, the show isn’t called “Boys,” although as far as spinoff ideas go, giving Driver and Karpovsky their own series sounds infinitely better than whatever Dunham cooks up next.

EXTRAS: There’s certainly no shortage of bonus material here, highlighted by cast and crew audio commentaries on seven episodes. Also included is a series of deleted scenes, Inside the Episode featurettes, a table read for Episode 5, a Charlie Rose interview with Lena Dunham, a making-of featurette, a roundtable discussion with the show’s male co-stars, and if you can believe it, much more.

FINAL VERDICT: SKIP

Entertainment, Movies, Television

Blu Tuesday Emperor Girls: Season Two new Blu-rays Olympus Has Fallen The Big Wedding The Company You Keep What Maisie Knew

“Doomsday Castle” ready for Armageddon on Nat Geo Channel

August 12, 2013 / Bullz-Eye Staff

“When the world is in chaos and consumes the world, our family will survive….” This is Brent Sr.’s best quote, and that sums up his plan. Nestled high in the Carolina Mountains, Brett and his family have constructed a foreboding medieval castle to ward of the baddies in the event of an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) from the sun. In doomsday prepper lore, an EMP will plunge the country and then the world into chaos by wiping out the power grid. Our good friends at the National Geographic Channel invited us up to this wildly remote fortress to see the family and their doomsday plans in action and it was a trip unlike any other!

National Geographic Channel’s new summer series “Doomsday Castle,” their first spin off series after the hugely popular “Doomsday Preppers,” premieres Tuesday night, August 13th, at 10 pm ET/PT. Their cameras follow every step of the process behind the family’s adventure, from Brent Sr. summoning his family to see if they have what it takes to survive the upcoming apocalypse to the family finishing the construction on the enormous half built castle. Along the way we’ll see his near-maniacal military-driven crash course in survival, be it in tactical response to real invasion scenarios, survivalist training for substance and nourishment and fortification construction and defenses.

After a grueling ride in an ex-Army issued troop transport vehicle of some kind, we made it to the most remote part of the Carolina mountains that I thought every existed. Brent Sr. had scouted out and bought 500 acres here just for the placement and construction of this family fortress to battle the eventual rush of the population to find food and more in the event of Armageddon. Spectacular views greeted us there along with the castle itself. The family members were waiting to give us tours and instruction on various skills and techniques their father and his side kick, ex-Army Ranger (and complete bad ass) Military Mike, had given them over the course of the series filming. This included rappelling off the castle walls, zip lining to safety off the castle parapets, Viet Cong style booby trap construction, cross bow practice (to zombie targets with exploding heads), catapult defense demos and remote listening post construction and usage.

The family included a remarkable group of characters, with three attractive daughters in their early to mid-20s – Ashley, Lindsey and Dawn-Marie. Elder son Brent II was the rebel of the group and younger son Michael was already an experienced prepper and avid hunter. The three daughters were amazing troopers to survive this doomsday scenario crash course all in the remote Carolina mountains for four months and did it all with spunk and moxie. Look for individual “Doomsday Castle Girl” profiles in upcoming weeks here on Bullz-Eye.com for exclusive photo pictorials of the girls in action with weaponry and more!

“Doomsday Castle” offers a fascinating look at a family embracing the prepper movement and has plenty of action, weapons and adventure scenarios to entertain all sorts of viewers. Check it out on Tuesday night!