Finally, a day of fun in Australia!
My morning started with another visit to Starbucks, and I've go to say, the standard for Starbucks in Oz isn't too good...They haven't had cream cheese for days, but are still attempting to sell bagels. And, at 7:45am they hadn't begun brewing coffee! Hello? We're not in Seattle anymore Toto...
Yeah, so after some toast and questionable coffee from a different corner shop, I boarded my tour out to the Yarra Valley wine country. The tour guide Matt was fabulous, and the other ten people on the bus were friendly, and fun! We had a few gals from Manchester, England, and the rest of the gang were Australians.
The drive out to the Yarra Valley isn't too impressive - it's like driving along the motorway of the Midlands in England.
We arrived in Lilydale, which is the gateway to the Yarra Valley. Lilydale is supposedly a rather rough neighborhood that looks a little bit industrial these days.
Not to worry, within about ten minutes we arrived at Helen's Hill Winery - a very beautiful winery set amongst acres of vineyards. Upon entering, there was a large wood-burning fireplace crackling, surrounded by tables and chairs made from wine barrels. A very cozy "cellar door" as the Australians like to call their tasting rooms.
Helen's Hill is a family owned winery with chardonnay and pinot noir vines that date back to 1984. They do a variety of blends all aged in French oak. We had a great time, and actually learned a lot about proper wine tasting! I left with a bottle of their "Evolution" - a 2006 white blend that had honey and butterscotch notes. Yum!
Following Helen's Hill, we ventured out to Rochford Winery for a tasting and some lunch. Rochford is set on a huge green surrounded by vines and mountains. It's so beautiful! They are famous for having concerts on the green, and in fact Sheryl Crow and John Mellencamp are going to be playing there in the next few weeks. Rochford did excellent wines, but there was nothing particular that caught my fancy.
They had a *fabulous* restaurant which had wonderful views. Given that we were on a tour with ten people, I really didn't expect lunch to be great. (I paid $84 for the entire tour which included lunch, 30 tastings at 4 wineries, a glass at Chandon and a glass at lunch, all transportation, etc.). Ok, so that's pretty cheap considering. You can imagine how surprised I was to be served a wonderful meal of baked snapper and green beans with a lemon, dill and caper dressing. It was so yummy! Following lunch, I walked up to the rooftop of Rochford and captured some of the pics you see woven throughout this entry.
After Rochford we ventured out to Domaine Chandon. Chandon purchased an old dairy farm during the 1800's, refurbished it, and built a beautiful wine facility. I wasn't too excited about Chandon since it is quite commercialized, I just visited their Napa facility in April, and this is one of five wineries which they own. I was so wrong! This place was great! It is NO wonder that sparkling wine is so expensive - there is so much work involved in rotating the bottles and moving the yeast around in process which is mainly done by hand and takes ages! The grounds were stunning and would be perfect for a wedding. I had a glass of a sparkling (red) shiraz wine which was beyond fabulous. It was a deep red, but bubbled up like a typical glass of champagne. Chandon provided breads, cheese, and tomato chutney to munch on while we tasted.
After viewing their barrel room and pressing facility, we ventured out to Yering Farm winery. Yering Farm is exactly how you picture wine tasting in Australia to be. It has a real farm feeling (in fact, the winemaker was out on the lawnmower when we arrived, later getting off to come and greet us). Our tasting was out in the grass, overlooking the vines, and an old wooden picnic table. This place is very unassuming, yet produced fabulous wines. The grounds were first planted with grapes by a Swiss winemaking family called the Deschamps. Now, the winemaker and his family run the estate, and ALL of the vines are picked by hand. Interestingly, on many of the vineyards you notice Vietnamese workers in traditional hats more commonly seen in rice fields than vineyards. They are typically employed for the harvest to pick grapes. Some wineries like Chandon primarily use machines to pick and only hand pick where absolutely required. Yering Farm uses their seasonal staff to handpick all of their acreage. And, they are paid standard wages as dictated by Australian law.
I left Yering Farm with a wonderful bottle of Shiraz (and I don't normally love Shiraz, but this one was exceptional!).
We ventured back into Melbourne, arriving around 5pm. I met up with a colleague, and we dined at a little restaurant that served amazing pumpkin stuffed tortellini with scampi. A great finish to my best day yet in the land down under!
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