For the first weekend in Australia, we (being the North American imports working in Australia) decided to head north east to Yarra Valley. We opted to go on the Epicurean tour, consisting of food and wine pairings in addition to the winery visits – while it was steep at $180 per person, it was worth it. I’ve been itching to go to a winery since the first experience two years ago at Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario.
Our first stop was to the De Bortoli winery, where we were given several different pairings of wine and cheese. In the spirit of attempting to preserve our palate, they paired wines and cheeses going from white wine, to rose, to red and ending with the dessert wines. Some of the best pairings were the Riesling with the goat cheese and the Pinot Noir with a brie cheese (surprisingly great with the rind). I honestly wish I remember which wine went well with the extremely creamy and thick cheese, but thats the downside of being a lightweight. I walked away with a Noble One, as I tend to be biased towards sweeter type wines; this thick yellow wine goes well with a blue cheese.
After just under an hour at De Bortoli, we were then dropped off to roam free at Yering Station, where we happened to arrive on the same day as a large farmers market. Yering Station had a two full-fledged restaurants, a tranquil pond, a museum gallery of all its historic wines on showcase, and a bustling cellar door with art lining the walls. Yering Station felt largely like a commercialized sales area, one of the least memorable parts of the tour. Thankfully, we only had an hour to kill at Yering Station.
Lunch time, but not without a little educational experience first. Our tour guide, Steven, brought us to Domaine Chandon, famous for its sparkling wines. We arrived to the aroma of freshly pressed grapes, and were given a quick overview of all the machinery used in the wine making process. The recently-emptied Riddling Hall is where the sparkling bottles of wine containing yeast, used for carbonation, settles. The neck of the bottles are then frozen and the yeast removed, resulting in a clear sparkling wine. We then strolled upstairs to the Chandon Greenpoint Brasserie, the dining room of Domaine Chandon.
We were promptly served an anti-pasto and four generous glasses of wine: Vintage Brut, Chardonnay, Heathcote Shiraz and a Sparkling Pinot Shiraz.
I walked away with a Chardonnay, which was heavily influenced by my choice of main: Saffron Mussels with garlic, chili, white wine and saffron butter, with sour dough bread. The freshness, richness in the colour and juicy of the plump mussels was spectacular. The juices and the butter was so savoury that, at the insistence of our tour guide, that we finish it with a spoon. It was a choice that I definitely did not regret.
After a fantastic lunch, we were then transported to Coldstream, one of the more intimate tasting bars that, while the wines were not grown in the immediate vicinity, did not lack the atmosphere of a cellar door. Definitely wished I bought something from Coldstream, but my budget was well exceeded by this point!
To wrap up the tour, we went to the Yarra Valley Dairy to have more samplings of cheese, coffee and wine. Delicious flat white with caffeine to round off more wine tasting.
Overall, the Epicurean tour was fantastic, and good value for the $180 we put in for it. We met other fantastic individuals on the trip (a mother & daughter life-savers aka lifeguards, and a finance professor born in Canada), and Steven, our tour guide, supplied excellent trivia as we went along our day. Highly recommended.
FYIs for this post:
- Mains are different than entrées in Australia – a main is the “meal” sized plate, while an entrée a smaller portion.
- Cellar Doors are what I think are the sales areas of the wineries, named so because the cellar is where the wine is stored. Canadian wineries do not typically feature their sales areas as cellar doors!
- Wine tastings at most wineries were free (with the exception of the Noble One I sampled) – a sharp contrast to Canada where you pay per sample! A wine lovers heaven, for sure.
- While I have used the term “good value” appropriately, Melbourians have taken this term and have applied it to people – “he was a great person to meet; he is good value”. Imagine my confusion.
I love cheese and when wine tasting you find some really good cheeses to have with the wine. I would love to do that wine tasting in Australia. Looks like fun.
By the way, the pics look great!