Dowie Doole Wines

Beautiful winery located amoungst the trees in McLaren Vale. Enjoyed a yummy chhese board filled with lots of local cheeses and fruit n nuts. Nice relaxing atmosphere.

Sea & Vines Festival on the June long weekend is a plethora of food & wine events in the crisp winter air of McLaren Vale. Some of these events are big — very big — and you find yourself sharing the experience with hundreds of others. Some are more modestly sized, so you can still have some one on one time with the winemaker and cellar door staff.
Dowie Doole specialise in these more intimate events. So far we have been to a Pulled Pork day in December 2013, a Raclette & Petanque day at Sea & Vines 2013, and now this special Raclette & Wine day as part of the Sea & Vines 2014.
Dowie Doole wines is on California Rd in McLaren Vale, on the way to Willunga. Three friends, Norm Doole, Drew Dowie and Leigh Gilligan joined forces with winemaker Chris Thomas to run the business. One of the newer wineries, the tasting room opened for seven days a week trading in December 2013.
The beautiful modern tasting room sits overlooking an estate vineyard to the north, with a lovely green lawn edged with native gum trees, full of local birds. The green provides an ideal surface for playing a round of petanque.
In partnership with the Smelly Cheese Shop’s Lulu Lunn, freshly grilled authentically French raclette cheese was offered with a plate of cheese friendly extras for $ 15.
Lulu and her trusty French raclette griller were churning out bubbled, hot, crunchy slathes of delicious cheese.
We opt for a bottle of the G&T — not gin and tonic — but Grenache and Temparanillo, two of McLaren Vale’s most well suited varieties.
The G&T is a medium bodied drop, with red fruits on the nose including spicy ripe strawberries.
A nice structure complemented the roundness of the rich cheese, and good balance meant the wine didn’t overwhelm the wine, nor the wine the food.
A raclette plate has a variety of tastes, temperatures and textures. Crunchy pickled onions and cornichons, hot melty cheese, fresh baguette, and meaty charcuterie. It takes a well balanced drop to stand up to that kind of variety.
The scale & creativity of Dowie Doole’s events, and the integrity of their wines and food partners, all means we’ll be back — again!