Thursday, June 16, 2011

Yarra Valley Wineries

On Sunday morning, we headed out in the fog with our friends Adam and Emily and their guest Jason to the beautiful wineries of Yarra Valley.  This is an area about an hour outside of Melbourne (near the Dandenongs) known for its wine.  We visited some of the more well-known wineries, such as Yering Station, Domaine Chandon, and De Bortoli.  We also stopped by Oakridge and the Yarra Valley Dairy, where we bought some yummy cheese.  Since it was a holiday weekend, everywhere was pretty crowded, but we had a good time tasting various wines and enjoying the expansive views.

We took a thirty minute tour at Domaine Chandon, where we learned all about their wine-making processes and got to see some of the machinery.  Domaine Chandon is part of the same company that makes Dom Perignon.  This is the riddling room.  They turn these bottles a quarter turn twice a day.  I was so tempted to turn one and mess up their whole system, but I resisted the urge.  We did enjoy the wine tasting here and bought two bottles. We got one very unique Pinot Noir to share with my dad when my family comes out in November and one Cuvee Riche that I really liked to save for a special occasion.
Since we're heading into winter, there were no grapes on the vines, but the fields were still very pretty.  We all agreed it'd be fun to come back in the summer to see a different side of things.  Many wineries have gorgeous grounds; it'd be lovely to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy a bottle of wine with the nice view.

Once the fog burned off and the sun came out, 
we had a very beautiful day for winery touring!  


Cheers to Yarra Valley-we'll be back!


Tomorrow's post will be about our Monday session of surfing until sunset.  Look for some pretty rad pictures (you can cheat and go to Shutterfly right now to see them ahead of time!).

2 comments:

  1. Zack's looking a little glazed over in that photo... how much wine did you taste? :P

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  2. This reminds me a lot of Napa Valley - you captured the scenery beautifully. Dad would have loved to join you.

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