Yarra Valley Wine Tour

On my last full day in Melbourne, I set off in another 24-passenger bus with 18 other wine connoisseurs to the Yarra Valley, one of the grape-growing regions in Australia. Other Aussie wine regions you may have heard of include Hunter Valley outside Sydney or Barocha Valley outside Adelaide. Interestingly enough, during the conference, I met some people from Canberra, and learned that wineries are starting to pop up around Canberra as well. A mention of this to a native Melbournian I met at my guesthouse, though, was met with a polite smile and slightly skeptical look, followed by an enquiry as to whether if I had been to Yarra Valley yet, or if I was planning to go.

I hit the road with the Australian Wine Tour Company, a business started by ‘a guy with a car’ who wanted to share his appreciation for the Yarra Valley’s scenic locale for fermented grape juice sippers, but grew to include a fleet of a 24-passenger bus and a smaller minivan service—with customizable itinerary-- for those gourmet types who may not want to mix with the regular riff raff.

We visited 4 wineries:

Yering Station

Rochford Wines

Yering Farm

Domaine Chandon—yes, the Dom Perignon people.

At each winery, we were given an introduction to a few of the wines by a member of the staff, and then allowed to visit the tasting bar to try some more. Our itinerary and tour price included a lovely gourmet lunch at Rochford Winery served with a glass of wine, ice water after our stop at Yering Farm, and then a bread/cheese platter and a glass of sparkling wine to finish at Domaine Chandon.

I had never been on a wine tasting tour, so I didn’t really know the finer points of tasting wine, or how the sometimes flowery descriptions are written. Tasting wine requires a number of steps—they may seem overly academic, but are necessary to fully appreciate the flavors of the wine as well as to prevent overindulgence. As it turns out, 5 20 mL tasting serves equal a full drink, so professional wine tasters who sample 50 to 60 wines a day would certainly fall over by noon if the wine were actually consumed.