YARRA VALLEY, Melbourne - 2006

Kev had some work to do in Melbourne, so we decided to fly down the weekend prior, hire a car and spend the weekend in the vineyards of the Yarra Valley. It was raining and cold but that's Melbourne in Winter I guess. Our first visit was to the Domaine Chandon Vineyard, the Australian location of the Moet & Chandon business. We learnt all about sparkling wine and got to taste a couple of glasses of it afterwards. I never knew until then that it Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk in 1693, was the first to invent Sparkling wine and that his quote was:

“Come quickly; I am tasting stars!”

The highlight was the tour of the factory, walking through their storage shed and exiting through double sets of heavy doors to the top floor of their restaurant where the back wall was all glass that looked out at their vineyard. Also the daffodils growing wild in the car park were pretty amazing too!

Domaine Chandon

After that we headed to Helens Hill vineyard and restaurant at a town called Coldstream, we didn't do the wine tasting here, but had lunch at there beautiful restaurant. The walls of the restaurant were floor to ceiling glass, perched on a hill again looking out over vineyards. We had a lovely meal and nice glass of Pinot Noir, before setting off for The Cloudstream Vineyard. Kev bought a bottle of Merlot here but only because we were wound up in the experience, the Merlot wasn't really that great. Rochford Vineyard was our next stop, by this time we were getting pretty soaked from hopping in and out of the car (and soaked from too much wine tasting). This winery was magnificent. They hold the 'Day on The Green' every year, same one as we have here in Brisbane at the Sirromet vineyard. Australia have Chris Isaak doing the Day on the Green's this year (mental note to book tickets). Anyway, the gentlemen serving us was the Manager and was very kind and lovely too us. Yarra Valley definatley do the best Pinot Noir, so we had to buy one to enjoy that night.

We were booked into the Tuck-Inn in Healesville http://www.tuckinn.com.au/home.html which was an old mosanic lodge converted into Bed and Breakfast. The rooms were newly renovated with beautiful art throughout. The huge comunale area had a log fire, big leather couches and plenty of reading material, so we freshened up and drank our bottle of Rochford in front of the fire listening to the rain outside. The Tuck-Inn did a fabulous breakfast in the morning. Three couples including us who were staying there sat at their 3 metre long timber table while we were served up eggs to our liking and top quality coffee. We had a great time meeting and talking to the other couples.

Our final day we visited Balgownie, Henkell (where we bought a 1.5L bottle of Merlot), and the De Bortoli vineyard. I finally now have seen the origin of the Noble One dessert wine that has had me intreged for years. The De Bortoli vineyard had a cheese tasting counter as well with huge choice of cheese to taste for a fee, the place all smelt a bit funny. I also managed to knock over a wine glass while I was there, I was having trouble moving from all the coats I had on. If there's a glass sitting somewhere, I'll knock it over for sure!

We made our way back to the city and spend a little bit of time in Richmond (Bridge Road), then a quick coffee at St Kilda then out to the airport to say farewell to each other. What a lovely weekend!