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Published: February 24th 2008
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The Yarra Valley
didn't know what had hit it! February is Melbourne Bank Holiday galore!! It also marks the end of the summer too unfortunately.
Summer here has been a blast with the long hot days, nearby beaches, sitting outside all night having some food and wine - amazing! Also in summer, there are lots of free activities to partake in, like orchestras in the Botanical Gardens, concerts in Fed Square, outdoor cinema and trapeze lessons. Yeah, you heard me, TRAPEZE lessons!! It was all set up in the city square and I had noticed it was there over the previous couple of weeks, but never thought that it was available to everyone or free for that matter!!
Since the start of the summer, we had been saying to Kellie and Ryan and Caroline and Tucker that we would do the Yarra Valley wine region tour. So we finally got it organised, we booked a bus (Caz and Tucker’s friend’s were here from Sydney too), we had an agenda of 4 wineries to visit and we would have lunch at one. It was amazing value - the ticket was $100 and that includes tastings at the 4 wineries and all you can eat pizza and salad lunch. Whopping day out for the equivalent of £40 - you cannae beat it!!
It was an early start as far as drinking goes, even by Ricky’s standards! We all met at 9.30 with coffees and toasties in hand and headed to the Yarra Valley. The wine region is about 1 hour from Melbourne and the first winery we stopped at was called Tarrawarra. I think we were all a little overexcited as at this one they were doing a cellar clear out and is was basically a case of name your price!! So we did, we offered $100 for a case of 12 bottles. We all chipped in and got 3 bottles each for $30. Not bad!!
We had lunch at the next one, Train Trak, which was the newest one we visited. The guy was really young and stilled pissed from the night before so he was topping us up good style. It was a really hot day so we sat inside, where it still so sunny we had to keep our shades on. It was nothing special and the pizzas were ok to average, but let’s face it - we weren’t that interested in the food. It was here I tasted the best Shiraz, so got some bottles for home.
The third one of the tour was Yerring Station. A really fancy winery, with a deli shop, a massive restaurant, accommodation and an old warehouse were our tasting was. It was really gorgeous and had some lovely trees that I decided to throw myself round and get some skelves!! I think it was the wine! We bought another couple of bottles there and in particular I really liked a pink sparkling that was a desert wine. It was very nice. I guess that’s the problem - after about 10 tastings, they all taste good. Kinda like the beer goggles effect.
Our final one was the cutting edge of the Yarra Valley region, Domaine Chandon, where the sparkling wine is made by the same process as Champagne is made. I did taste a lovely sparkling Shiraz. Again, it was very plush, really big and very busy. We had a sommelier talk us through about 5 different wines and a waiter brought some cheese, relish and crackers. We had a bit of a party at this tasting because it was busy, there was a lot of chat with the girl giving us the wine and they were only too happy to continue topping us up.
It was a boozed filled fun day with great company and a good opportunity to taste wine that you would never dream of buying. Great value for money too. I guess the wineries get their money back easy as we must have bought about 16 bottles of wine. Again, must have been the wine!!
We all got dropped off at Caz and Tucker and to make for a really interesting evening we playing some drinking games. After a clear run of avoiding the vodka shots, we headed to our local where there was an amazing live band playing and good Belgan beer flowing.
The next morning was the first bank holiday in Feb so I was looking forward to a long lie in until Ricky dragged me out of bed to attempt the trapeze. As you can imagine, I wasn’t too happy. Anyway, thoughtful as he is, he headed into the city as soon as he was ready to get my name down on the list. It was the last day the trapeze was there and he thought he was doing me a favour as I was talking about how much I would love to do it.
I got into the city about 15 mins after him and luckily I was taken on the lesson as someone never turned up. We started off warming up and then we did some swinging from the bar just on ground level. We got a few go’s and basically, the very good looking instructors went up and demonstrated and then we went up. It was so exciting! I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it, but hopefully from the video you can see that it was actually relatively easy.
Got lots more to add on here, but we've just been sooooo busy. Thats summer in Melbourne for you - you don't even get the chance to sleep!!
Miss you all, catch up soon x x x
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