Dream Trip No 2—to the Land of Oz: Yarra Valley Wine Tour

A full day on The Great Ocean Road is a hard act to follow, but what could be better than a day of wine tastings? Our tour was organized by Australian Wine Tour Company, with another expert and entertaining driver/guide, Geoff, who really knows about wine.

Here is our itinerary as advertised.

Our expert guides guarantee a social, entertaining and educational day out on this specialised Yarra Valley Wine Experience, departing daily from Melbourne. Enjoy a personalised Yarra Valley bus tour in the company of an average number of 12 -20 people (max. 24) in our luxury, air-conditioned fun bus. This winery bus tour is exceptional value and includes: Features A Real Wine Expert, (not a snob!) as your guide that will entertain and educate you Cellar Door Tasting at Yering Station, Yering Farm and Rochford Wines A La Carte Lunch at Rochford Wines Restaurant including a glass of estate wine A private tour of Domaine Chandon plus a glass of their premium sparkling wine and light tasting platters Departs 7 days a week all year guaranteed (except Dec 25 & 26 and Jan 1)

Itinerary

9.00am - 9.50am: Meet at pick up points.

10.00am: Depart final pick up point for Yarra Valley, just under an hour in our deluxe coaches.

11.00am - Yering Station Learn how to swirl, sniff, slurp and then taste in this historic cellar door, home of the Yarra Valleys first vineyard and adjacent to its award-winning, architecturally designed winery and restaurant with sculpture garden.

12.00pm - Rochford Wines Indulge in a guided tasting session at Rochford Wines tasting table. Make your selection of wine for lunch and take your complimentary glass of wine to the restaurant with its magnificent vineyard views. Lunch includes main meal, a glass of Rochford wine & tea or coffee.

1.40pm - Yering Farm One of the Yarra Valleys more boutique wineries, Yering Farm has stunning views and is oozing with rustic charm. Experience wines made with traditional methods in their cellar door, which showcases antique copper wine making tools used by pioneer wine makers.

2.15pm - Domaine Chandon French Champagne company Moet & Chandon's Australian production house offers the perfect way to finish the day.Our special access guided tour through the winery, demonstrates the process for making these world famous bubbles.We emerge from the riddling room to jaw-dropping views where a relaxing glass of Australia's best bubbly and light tasting platters await.

3.30pm: Depart the Yarra Valley for Melbourne. 4.30pm - 5.00pm: Return to Drop off points.

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And we pretty much stuck to the itinerary. It was a cloudy, fall day—yes, remember it's fall heading into winter in Australia. The vines in the vineyards were mostly bare. There are peach and apple orchards, fields of strawberries and brussel sprouts.

Our first stop was at Yering Station, which, I think I can say for most everyone on the tour, was probably our favorite, excepting Domaine Chandon. Most of the wine produced in this area is white with some dabblings in red. We kept hearing about how chardonnay had been getting a bad rap thanks to the Australian tv show Kath and Kim. We heard this from Geoff and from every winery we visited. However, let the wine purchasing begin!

Here I am having a chat with a young man who has decided to go back to school as an English major!

Our next stop was Rochford Wineries where we were also booked for lunch. None of the lunch offerings were really to my taste: salmon, lamb, corn beef, and risatto. I went for the risatto. I am not much of a fish eater, and I refuse to eat lamb on principal, and corn beef wasn't much of a choice, although that is what Trevor had, and he said it was good.

He also snuck off and had some chocolate cake for dessert!

As a whole, we were not really impressed with the offerings at Yering Farm, although I liked their labels and names of wines. Yering Farm is a small, boutique type of winery, and their wines are not those you will find in a liquor or grocery store.

Our last stop was Domaine Chandon, and yes, this winery is owned by Moet & Chandon. They make French Champagne without all the rules and strictures a winery would have to follow in France. We were all treated to a glass of champagne with some bread and cheese. Trevor chose the red wine champagne which was very good. I chose the Brut Champagne.