Melbourne's Yarra Valley Wine and Food Tour

After checking out the superheroes in Federation Square (same day, Sat. May 29) I did my own imitation of Flash and dashed back to my hotel to meet Epicurean Tours for my day trip to the Yarra Valley.

On the one-hour ride from the CBD of Melbourne to the Yarra Valley, the very knowledgeable guide informed our small group that the Yarra Vlley is Victoria's (state that Melbourne's in) oldest wine region and is well known for its chardonnay and pinot noir. The fact he said "chardonnay" surprised me as in the past year I've lived here I drank very little chardonnay when out with work and friends who overwhelmingly prefer sauvignon blanc and champagne and to a lesser extent riesling.

I gave the chardonnay's a go at most wineries and found it just average - mostly because I prefer the round, fruity buttery taste of the California chardonnay. The pinot noirs I tried were fine, but not spectacular - not fruit forward as I prefer, more settle in flavor and fragrant.

In my overall assessment, I'd have to say that in general I prefer the Barossa Wine Valley in South Australia which is famous for its shiraz as I find the wines far more interesting, lots of powerful flavor action going on in the wine.

But that's not to say I didn't enjoy the Yarra Valley (I did ship 6 bottles of wine home) - here were my highlights:

1. De Bortoli Winery - A very well known winery that's been owned for three generations by the De Bortoli family and is widely available in bottle shops across Australia this seems most akin to Napa Valley's Robert Mondavi Winery because it's on every wine tour's itinerary and it's well commercialized and has a great wine tasting room. I purchased a bottle of its "world acclaimed" sweet white Noble One dessert wine which was delightful with the blue cheese they were also sampling.



2. My favorite winery of the day however was the Yering Station Winery which had this funky foilage of purple, yellow and orange leaves (remember that even though it's May it is Fall or as Aussie's call it "Autumn" here). We checked out the vista views from atop the bottling plant, got a peak from the outside of the restaurant (that's only open for lunch, which I've made a mental note of as I'd love to come back here) and then the cellar door (or what I'd call the tasting room). The tasting room had a SoHo New York artsy studio feel to it as there were these great paintings all around this cement-unfinished wall room with the wine bar in the middle. My faves were the Yarrabank Creme de Cuvee Champagne (it was sweeter than the non-Creme Cuvee), the Yering Station 2006 MVR (which is made up of the Marsanne, viognier and roussanne grapes) and the very tasty 2006 Yering Station Sangiovese.



3. For lunch we went to Domaine Chandon Australia which was amusing to me as I've been many times to Domain Chandon California (Napa). In fact in this Flip Video you'll here my memories of when my cousin Mieko went there as well as when I took my cousin Yasushi and his now wife Cindy (their baby shower for this first child is coincidentally today) there to enjoy an amazing oyster tasting plate a few short years ago.



4. At Coldstream Hills Winery I felt immediately at home (or rather work) as they had Cisco IP Phones and we did a wine tasting here and I purchased a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc to take with me to my friend Kristina's (my former manager at Cunningham Communications - she gave me my start in high tech PR for which I'm forever grateful) for dinner with her family that evening.



As we leave this winery you'll see that these Aussies I was traveling with (originally from Perth in Western Australia now living in Melbourne) have some unique talents - whistle blowing with a leaf from a eucalyptus tree.



5. At our last stop we tasted hand-made farm cheeses (there was one covered in ash which not surprisingly tasted like creamy cheese with a bit of ash dust and another which I brought home called "Chevre & Dill" which is goats milk cheese and fresh dill) at the 100-year-old working Yarra Valley Dairy where there were some very long legged cows as you'll see in this Flip Video.