20/1/2012
The plan today was to do some wine tasting in the Yarra Valley, about an hour’s drivefrom Melbourne. Debs had hired a car for the weekend and Debs, Mel, Debs Mum, Doreen and I left the house around 11.45am. The first winery we went to was Domaine and Chandon, in beautiful surroundings just off the Maroondah highway, in Coldstream. It was established by the French champagne house, Moet and Chandon. In Australia, they produce sparkling wines and cool-climate still wines.
At the Greenpoint Tasting Bar, Mel and I sampled their range of sparkling and still red and white wines, for a cost of 5 AUD, which is refundable with the purchase of any bottled wine or Brasserie meal. The list consisted of about ten different wines. Debs told me that here in Australia they make a sparkling red wine. I’d never heard of that before and to me, it was strange but there was actually one of these on the list.
Of the sparkling wines, I liked the Vintage Brut 2008 the best, even though Mel said it tasted like kangaroo piss! He’s more of a red wine man. My favourite red was their Pinot Noir 2010. Doreen very kindly bought me a bottle of the Pinot Noir and they also bought some wine for themselves. We decided not to do the wine tour as we wanted to get moving on to the next place and get some lunch somewhere.
So we drove on to Yerington Winery. This was quite close by and didn’t take us long to get there. This was quite a big winery too, with a big, open area where the wine tasting was. We decided to do a wine tasting and then get some lunch. The number of wines on their list was long – about fifteen in total and the tasting was free, surprisingly! I wasn’t going to do all of them but I tried three white wines, including a Cuvee Riche and then moved onto the reds. Mel joined me in the tasting at this stage. The Merlot 2010 was his favourite and for me, the Pinot Noir 2010 topped the lot. They had a tawny port on the list, which Chandon didn’t have and it was really nice. It left a lovely taste on the tongue.
The fish that Mel bought at the market the other day was put to good use, as he made the most delicious chowder that night for us. It was divine!


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