Wine tasting at Yarra Valley with a wine tour

9 May 2019

Having enjoyed our previous visits to vineyards in Niagara producing ice wines and even a hike through Lavaux vineyards in Switzerland, we decided to include a visit to Yarra Valley, Victoria's oldest wine region dating back to 1838, in our itinerary. 

The Yarra Valley is about a one-hour drive north-east of Melbourne. There is no public transport to the Yarra Valley, so the best way to get there is on an organised tour or by self-drive car.

“When You Drink, Don’t Drive”.

Heeding the above advice, we decided to join a wine tour to Yarra Valley. There were many to choose from, all competitively priced and offering a variety of itineraries. 

We chose to book a tour with the Australia Wine Tour Company based on good reviews in the internet and itinerary that met what we were looking for. 

This includes the following:

• Tasting at the cellar doors at Yering Farm, Balgownie Estate and Steels Gate Wines.
• A a la Carte lunch at Balgownie Estate, accompanied by a glass of the estate’s wine.
• A privately conducted tour of Domaine Chandon, complemented with a glass of their premium sparkling wine.

Never do wine tasting on an empty stomach. On the day of the tour, we made sure we had a good breakfast at The Coffee Club, located in the Southern Cross Station along Spencer Street where we stayed. We each had a cup of coffee with toasties of ham and eggs which cost AUD 9.50 per set which was good value.

Tony, our guide and driver for the day, picked us up from a designated pick-up point along Flinders Street at 9.20 AM. The air-conditioned minibus then made the rounds to collect a few more from other designated pick up locations in Melbourne before heading out to Yarra Valley.

Our tour bus to Yarra Valley wineries.

All in, there were about 14 people in our group that includes a couple from Scotland, two ladies from Japan, a few from Singapore and even a couple who lived in Melbourne.

On the way to Yarra, Tony did his pitch, to entertain and educate us on Yarra Valley, wine and the places we would be visiting.

Closer to Yarra, we passed beautiful suburban residential areas as well as rolling farmland with herds of black Angus cattle and sheep. Tony even pointed out some emus and kangaroos while driving. 

Somewhere in Yarra Valley, just before arriving at our first winery, our van was stopped by drink-driving enforcement officers and Tony had to blow into a breath analyser.

“When You Drink, Don’t Drive” and “When you Drive, Don’t Drink”.

Wise words indeed.

We arrived at Steels Gate Wines, our first winery as scheduled. Steels Gate is a boutique winery situated in a picturesque hillside setting at Dixons Creek. Their range of wines are all estate grown and estate made.

Tony gave everyone a short presentation on the rituals in wine tasting. Swirl, smell, look and then taste the wine. Spitting into the bucket provided after tasting is optional. But why waste good wines! Just drink it all.

The staff at Steels Gate also provided information of all the wines we tasted.

We had some free time to look around but access to the vineyard where the grapes are grown is not allowed due to fear of disease transmission. 

 

Vines at Steel Gate Winery.


Interesting plant that looked like corn at Steels Gate Winery.

Tony took orders for the lunch that would be served later at the Balgownie Estate.  We could choose one from 4 main courses offered - Beef, Chicken, Salmon or Vegetarian. Almost everyone in the group chose the Beef dish.

At our next stop, Balgownie Estate, the staff presented us with a list with information of the wines we would taste. These included a 2017 Black Label Sparkling Shiraz that is something the winery is experimenting with.

The lunch served at Balgownie’s restaurant was excellent. The slowed cooked beef was flavourful and practically fallen off the bone. I enjoyed the side dishes and flavourful jus as well. The lunch included a glass of the Estate’s wine of course.

Our lunch of Beef Ribs at Balgownie Estate.

The view from the restaurant at Balgownie Estate.


We bought a bottle of their NV Premium Cuvee Brut and Sparkling Shiraz to bring home. The Cuvee Brut is a combination of three Chardonnays to form a very fruity and tasty white wine that we like very much.

Our next stop after lunch is the Yering Farm.

 

Yering is one of the Yarra Valley’s most charming boutique wineries and also has a 70 acre orchard. It has stunning views, and a delightful sense of heritage. It produces 6,000 cases of wine each year. They grew mostly Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Carbernet.




The tasting room and cellar at Yering Farm.

In addition to the wines, we were offered dessert wine, pear and apple cider to taste. We bought two bottles of pear cider and a small bottle of sweet dessert wine.

Our last stop of the day was at Domaine Chandon, the French champagne company Moet & Chandon's Australian production house. We were given a brief presentation of how sparkling white wine is made at the riddling room.

Yeast are added to blended wine and allowed to ferment to create the bubbly. Riddling is the process that collects the yeast and sediment in a bottle and concentrate it near the mouth of the bottle to be removed after the riddling process.

The inverted bottles of wine on the riddling rack. These bottles are rotated 90 degrees every now and then to allow the yeast and sendiments to collect at the bottom (mouth of the bottle).

The best part of the visit was tasting the sparkling wines at the tasting room.

The four Chandon sparkling wines that we tasted.

After the tasting, we were each given a full glass of our favourite sparkling wine (we cannot call them Champagne because they are not made in Champagne, France) to enjoy.

We were free to take the glasses out to the terrace. Here we could enjoy breath-taking views over a relaxing glass of Australia's best bubbly. One thing I like about this tour was that it was so relaxing, without any rush.

Views from the terrace outside the restaurant at Domaine Chandon.

We bought two bottles of Chandon’s sparkling wine to bring home.

When everyone was ready, we departed the Yarra Valley for Melbourne at about 3.30 PM. Everyone in the bus became rather chatty on the way back. Amazing what a bit of nice wine and alcohol can do to a party.

Overall, it has been an enjoyable and relaxing day in the Yarra Valley with good food, good wine and good company.

Continue Reading »

Morning at Queen Victoria Market

10 May 2019 

Having visited the South Melbourne Market earlier in the week (see this post), we were looking forward to visiting the more famous and larger Queen Victoria Market (QVM) with plenty of yummy food stalls.
Note: QVM is closed on Monday and Wednesday.

The morning started with cloudy sky but no rain as we took the free tram to Queen Victoria Market. We did a quick tour of the market checking out the food stalls as we came with an empty stomach.

A stall owner outside the Food Hall invited us to try some sugar coated almonds, peanuts and macadamia nuts. Since he was friendly and the caramelised almonds tasted so good, we bought a small packet of almonds for AUD 5 from him. This was to be consumed later during our road trip.

One of the must-try foods at QVM is the freshly baked donuts. We found the food truck American Donut Kitchen parked along Queen Street, selling the highly acclaimed donuts. 5 donuts for AUD 6. Although there was a queue, we did not have to wait very long to get our donuts. 

The donuts are made in the truck so they were all nice and warm and coated with fine sugar. The donuts were not too big, so 5 donuts for the two of us to share was just right.

I was initially concerned that the jam-filled donuts would be too sweet so we asked for a mix of 2 plain donuts and 3 jam-filled donuts. The donuts were so soft and delicious. The jam was not too sweet for me. Therefore, I actually liked the jam-filled donuts better.

After the donuts, a cup of long black from The Market Espresso was a good idea. With coffee in hand, we went to the food stall called The Mussel Pot. This store is located in Shed A, the vegetable section of the market. This stall sells fresh mussels as well as bowls of freshly cooked mussels.

It started to rain too, so a hot bowl of steaming mussels was perfect for a cold rainy morning.

The Mussel Pot stall at Queen Victoria Market. The stall has a pair of mussel shells on the top that looked like wings of a giant beetle getting ready to take off.

The menu was clearly posted, with pictures too. We ordered a bowl of mussels, steamed with white wine, garlic and parsley, to share. The mussels were cooked upon order, so we sat and waited about 10 minutes for our meal to be prepared.

The bowl of mussels was served with a slice of bread, ideal to mop up the tasty broth at the bottom of the bowl.

Menu at the Mussel Pot (Left). Mussels steamed with White Wine, Garlic and Parsley (Top Right) and Mussels steamed with Coconut Chilli, tomato, cream and parsley (Bottom Right).

I normally do not like to eat mussels as what was served up in restaurants back home was typically chewy and bland tasting stuff. I had confidence that the mussels in Australia would be fresher and better prepared.

We were not disappointed. The freshly steamed mussels were so well cooked, tender and juicy that we decided that we must have another bowl.

The next one we tried was the spicy one with coconut, tomato, chilli, cream and parsley. The broth at the bottom of the bowl was not too spicy and tasted like curry. We were equally delighted with our second bowl of mussels.

If I were to visit QVM again in the future, I will make sure to have few more bowls of freshly cooked mussels from The Mussel Pot.

After our brunch, we explore the various sections of the market offering items like fresh meat, seafood, processed food, fruits and vegetables etc. This was very similar to what we saw at the South Melbourne Market.

We bought a bag of premium mixed nuts from a stall in the Dairy Produce Hall that offers a wide range of nuts – macadamias, pecans, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. We ate these nuts during our road trip later and found them so fresh, well roasted and delicious.  

As forecasted, the weather took a turn for the worse and started raining heavily. We spend our time exploring the large sections of the market selling Specialty products that includes souvenirs, clothing, bags, pet products, kitchen wares etc. This reminded me of a typical street market in South East Asia, except that these stalls are under large sheds that sheltered us from the pouring rain.
 

Raining cats and dogs while we stood opposite a pet product stall in the Queen Victoria Market.

The rain lightened up at about 1 PM, just in time for us to leave QVM for some other indoor activities around the city.

Continue Reading »

Exploring Melbourne on a Rainy Day– Shopping malls, Arcades and the State Library Victoria

10 May 2019

What is the best way to spend some time in Melbourne on a rainy day?

Melbourne has some very beautiful buildings, shopping malls and arcades that is worth at least a walk-through, even though we don’t usually shop or buy stuff when travelling.

After a morning at the Queen Victoria Market, we took Tram No. 57 down to the shopping area in Melbourne’s CBD along Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street.

We actually stood at the uncovered tram stop outside the QVM in intermittent light showers to wait for the tram.

Queen Victoria Market and the Melbourne CBD

What was supposed to be a 5-minutes wait according to Google map, turned out to be a wait of about 30 minutes! The tram was very late. We heard that there was a flood somewhere along the tram’s route outside Melbourne.

We finally made it to Melbourne Central without getting too wet, thanks to our weather proof jackets.

Melbourne Central Mall

Walking into the enormous mall, we were awed by the sight of the Shot Tower. A building within a building.

The 50 m high Shot Tower, originally built in 1889, is housed in an ingenious 20 story high cone-shaped glass dome, a central point in Melbourne Central Mall.

A shot tower is designed for the production of small shot balls by freefall of molten lead, which is then caught in a water basin below the tower. The shots are primarily used to fill the cartridges (ammunition) to be fired from shotguns.

Another interesting thing to see in Melbourne Central Mall is the large stopwatch/clock that comes to life every hour, on the hour. A marionette display drops down from the bottom of the stopwatch, with native Australian birds and two gold plated figures moving to the music of Waltzing Matilda.

The Marionette Watch at Melbourne Central Mall.

State Library of Victoria

Next to Melbourne Central Mall is the State Library of Victoria. I would not normally visit a library while travelling. But this library is definitely worth a visit since we were in the vicinity.

We went to the Dome Reading Room which offers some of the best views of the interior.

View of the Dome Reading Room from above. Besides reading or working on their laptop, library users could also have a game of chess.


The dome roof above the Dome Reading Room.

Another view of the Dome Reading Room as we climbed the stairs up to the top floor.

Emporium Melbourne

After seeing the library, it was back to the shopping malls. The Emporium was linked to Melbourne Central Mall via a covered pedestrian bridge which was great on a rainy day.

Flinders Street Station made up of Lego bricks at Emporium Melbourne store.

Level 4 of Emporium Melbourne is the kids department. There was a large diorama of the Flinders Street Station made up of Lego bricks that is quite impressive.

An animatronic life-size T-Rex could be found at this area too. This dinosaur has sensors to detect our presence and would roar and move when we walked by.

Korean BBQ Dinner at ChangGo Restaurant

There were a few Korean BBQ restaurants in Melbourne that were recommended by friends. We decided to go to the ChangGo, located at 70 Little La Trobe Street, since it is very close to Melbourne Central.

This is a popular restaurant so we were advised to arrive just before it opened at 5.30 PM. Else it would be a long wait for the next sitting.

A queue outside the ChangGo Restaurant just before its opening time.

 
There was already a queue when we arrived. The restaurant opened promptly at 5.30 PM and all those in the queue managed to get a table.

The menu offered a la carte as well as value for money set dinners. We like beef so we ordered the beef dinner set for 2 persons. It included 2 bowls of steamed rice, fresh lettuce, 3 different cuts of thinly sliced marinated beef and a classic kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew). Like almost all Korean restaurants, there is free flow of banchan (side dishes) and mild barley tea.

The circular BBQ stove at the table with a large bronze air suction device above the stove.

The waitress came to help us load the BBQ hotplate with the first plate of beef. Thereafter, we did the grilling of the meat ourselves. Service was pretty attentive. The waitress came to change our BBQ hotplate after we finished cooking each type of marinated beef.

Overall, I find the quality of the meat provided with the beef set to be average. There are better quality meats in the menu but these are not available in the set dinner.

We noted that some diners ordered the pork belly set. It came with pork belly seasoned with 8 different types of marinades. This may be worth a try if I visit again.

Royal Arcade

On Friday, many shops in the CBD and suburban shopping centres remain open until 9:00 PM. We had time to check out the famous Melbourne arcades after dinner.

Our first stop was at the Royal Arcade.

Royal Arcade in Melbourne.

The architecture of this historic arcade is very interesting, with beautiful ceilings and black checked floor tiles. 

A big clock and two large figures called "Gog" and "Magog" could be seen at the end of covered walkway.

7 feet tall carved mythic figures of Gog and Magog in the Royal Arcade.

Block Arcade

Exiting from the Royal Arcade and crossing Little Bourke Street, we entered into the Block Arcade.

This is another beautiful arcade that rivals the Royal Arcade. We did not come here to shop. Instead we came to admire the beautifully crafted ceilings and floor.

Block Arcade in Melbourne.


Beautiful mosaic floor tiles in the Block Arcade.

Melbourne’s GPO and the Public Purse

Another interesting building in Melbourne’s CBD is the General Post Office or GPO. We actually walked past it on our way to the Royal Arcade and did not pay much attention to it.

What used to be the GPO is now repurposed into a large clothing store. Like many heritage buildings in our own country, what can’t be torn down for redevelopment is converted into restaurants or shopping malls.

What caught our attention was a giant clamshell purse sitting in the middle of the street.

A large purse in front of the GPO Building, at the junction of Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street Mall.

It was when we were waiting for our tram along Bourke Street that I noticed how beautiful the GPO building is.

Former General Post Office for Victoria. Now a H&M store.

I had time to snap a photo of the nicely lit building before our tram came. This was our last day in Melbourne city. We started our Melbourne road trip the next day, with Phillip Island as our first stop.

Next post: Start of our Melbourne Road Trip.

Continue Reading »

Melbourne Road Trip Day 1 – Phillip Island

11 May 2019

After spending several days in Melbourne city, we started our 7-day road trip to visit Phillip Island, Dandenong Ranges, Grampians National Park and the Great Ocean Road.  

We collected our rental car from Avis at the Southern Cross Station. The lady at Avis was kind to advise the best route out from the city, avoiding the dreaded hook-turn only found in Melbourne where you use the left lane to turn right. This hook-turn manoeuvre is not so intuitive for visitors driving in Melbourne city for the first time.

It was a Saturday morning, so traffic in the city was light. Unfortunately, road works forced us to take a detour and I had to do a hook turn in order to get back to our recommended route.

It was a good thing I had done some prior research. The hook-turn was not difficult after all.

It was rainy weather as we drove south towards Phillip Island. It took us about 2 hours to get to San Remo, a lively seaside town located at the gateway to Phillip Island.

We knew about the pelican feeding that takes place on the beach next to the San Remo pier daily at noon. The sky cleared just as we parked our car at San Remo Pier. We could see a couple of wild pelicans already loitering by the beach.

Fish and chips lunch at San Remo Fisherman's Co-op restaurant before the Pelican feeding.

The San Remo Fisherman's Co-op restaurant by the pier serves the best fish and chips in town, featuring fish straight off the boats, as well as healthy grilled options, and even delectable crayfish platters. We had ample time for lunch before the pelican feeding starts at noon.

Pelican Feeding at San Remo Beach

By noon, a crowd had gathered by the beach. Similarly, more wild pelicans had also gathered for the daily snack.

A lady arrived in her truck and started unloading boxes of fish. We could feel the excitement levels rising in both birds and men.

The pelicans behaving like kids in front of the school teacher.

While giving the birds their daily snack, the crowd was also given information about the pelicans, their diet, lifestyle and how we can improve conservation and environmental efforts to protect these and similar species.

The pelicans that came for the feeding are wild birds and able to fish on their own. They are not dependent on the daily feeding to survive. In fact, the amount of food given at the daily feeding is just a tiny snack for them.

We learnt that the male and female birds looked almost exactly alike. We also learnt how experts estimate the age of the birds. The younger bird has whiter eye ring while the older birds tends to have yellowish eye ring.

The pelican has a large pouch on their lower beak. They will always swallow the fish head first. The edge of the upper beak has a sharp and nasty hook!

The pelican feeding is very entertaining, educational and is free to watch.

Hike to Pinnacles Lookout at Cape Woolamai

We drove to Cape Woolamai, located on the south-eastern tip of Phillip Island. Cape Woolamai is the highest point on Phillip Island and has nice walking trails that feature breath-taking panoramic views of cliffs carved by wind and waves.

There are a few walking trails to choose from, namely the Pinnacles walk (4 kilometres), the Old Granite Quarry Walk (6 kilometres) and the Cape Woolamai Beacon Walk (6.6 kilometres).

We parked our car at the Cape Woolamai Lifesaving Club’s car park next to the surfing beach and started on the trail to the Pinnacles Lookout.

The trail to The Pinnacles is approximately 4 kilometres in length with an estimated walking time of 2 hours return.


Getting onto Woolamai Beach from the car park.

The first part of the trail involves walking on the beach. The trail is only accessible during low tides. Woolamai Beach is one of Victoria’s most popular surfing beaches but no surfers were spotted on this day with inclement weather. Or maybe it was low tide.

Sunny on one side of the beach looking southwards….

…dark clouds and rain on the other view looking northwards.

It was good to see the sun shining as we started our walk along the beach but there are forbidding looking grey clouds looming in the distance and also behind us. We were not deterred since we came with weather-proof clothing.

After following the beach for approximately five hundred metres, there was wooden stairs leading up to the cliffs above.

The next section of the walk to the Pinnacles would be along the cliffs above. There were not many hikers on this day. We met a couple of hikers on their way back to the beach.

“As changeable as the weather”…as the saying goes. The dark clouds we saw in the distance were soon above us.

Looking back, we could see the entire length of Woolamai Beach.

It started to rain just before we arrived at the Pinnacles Lookout. Accompanying the rain was some strong wind. Thankfully, there was no lightning as we were quite exposed on top of the coastal cliffs.

The rain stopped just as we arrived at the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are formed by years and years of volcanic activity and erosion.

The Pinnacles at Cape Woolamai.

Information Board at the Pinnacles Lookout Point.


More rain clouds were heading our way, so it was not wise to linger at the lookout point. Anyway, the rock formations were not too impressive.

Just as we were leaving, a couple with a toddler showed up proving this trail is not too difficult even for family with young children.

The sun came out again as we were on our way back to the beach.

On our way back, we spotted many tiny snails emerging from the sandy trail, probably attracted by the water that seeped into the sand.

Overall, the hike to the Pinnacle Lookout in Cape Woolamai took about 2 hours and was not difficult. My only disappointment was that we did not manage to spot any wild wallabies along the way.

Evening walk at the Nobbies

After checking into the Seahorse Motel at Cowes, we headed out to the Nobbies, located at the westernmost end of Phillip Island and just 5 minutes from the Penguin Parade.

As we drove along the road to the Nobbies car park, we spotted some small red brown kangaroos on the side of the road. We did not stop since the road was quite narrow.
Also located at this area is the Nobbies Antarctic Centre but we were more interested to just walk the scenic trail on the Nobbies Boardwalk instead.

Map of the Nobbies Boardwalk.


Nobbies Boardwalk with Antarctic Centre in the back.


Seal Rocks.

The walk begins next to the Nobbies Antarctic Centre. The boardwalk offers some spectacular coastal views. Offshore from The Nobbies are Seal Rocks, home to some Australian fur seals. Coin operated binoculars are provided for those who wish to spot them.

We could see waves crashing on the rocks below. We paused for many minutes at the Nobbies Blowhole, hoping to video the jet spray from the horizontal blowhole entrance without success. However, the fine misty ocean spray, backlit by the sun low on the horizontal, was quite dramatic.

Spray coming out from the Nobbies Blowhole on the right of photo.

A sign along the boardwalk explains how the blowhole works:

1. A large wave enters the blowhole.
2. The wave fills the tunnel from floor to ceiling, compressing air against the rear wall.
3. The wave hits the near wall and rebounds, its speed increased by the explosive force of the compressed air. This creates a jet spray from the tunnel entrance.

There are also fairy penguins nesting on the ground beneath the boardwalk. We managed to see a couple of them.

Boardwalk leading to the South Coast Lookout.


View from the South Coast Lookout.

The South Coast Lookout is the furthest point along the boardwalk. From there, we backtracked to the starting point with views of the sun low over the horizon.

Penguin Parade

Most people came to Phillip Island just to see the Penguin Parade. We came to the island for the same reason too.

Nay. We actually skipped the Penguin Parade!

We had already seen lots of fairy penguins at St Kilda Pier earlier during our trip. We figured it was better to save the entrance fees to the Penguin Parade (AUD 26.60 per person!) and used the money to buy ourselves a nice dinner at Cowes instead.

Dinner at Fig and Olive Restaurant in Cowes

This steak and seafood restaurant was recommended by the kind gentleman at the Seahorse Motel who checked us in. It is located in Cowes, a few minutes by car from our motel.

Grilled Lamb Rack and Eye Fillet Steak for dinner at Fig and Olive.

Where we stayed in Phillip Island

We stayed at the Seahorse Motel, a clean and well maintained motel located in Cowes. The air-conditioned guest rooms are equipped with electric blankets (a must during the colder autumn and winter months!), a fridge and cable TV. 

Continue Reading »