In mid-December, Dave and I escaped the desert for a few days and visited the state of Victoria. We flew to Melbourne and spent a few days exploring the Yarra Valley wine region and then hit the Great Ocean Road. It rained every day we were there other than the days we arrived and departed. Good news is that it keeps the crowds down!
The Yarra Valley is a fairly new wine region; most of the vines are less than 20 years old. The main varieties for the region are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Neither variety is amongst my favorites but I managed to find enough to drink along the way because the area also turns out some very fine sparkling wines.
We stayed at Balgownie Estates which couldn’t be that bad a place. It
is a boutique hotel and spa along with the winery. I knew we’d come to the right place when I sneaked a peek into the mini bar and discovered 10 (I counted them twice) different bottles of wine and a wide selection of European chocolates. We’re talking full sized bottles not those wimpy little airplane ones or even the ever so polite half bottle. Ten full grown beautiful bottles of wine, with the most expensive a not so whopping $45. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
After traveling all day, we decided drink a bottle of bubbly and take a stroll along the estates nature/fitness trail. I’m not sure whose head the bubbles affected most – the person posing in these pictures or the person who was taking them.
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