Much planning goes on before a day out & about in the vineyards. The night before we discussed our strategy, selected wineries to visit & set the alarm early to ensure we didn’t miss a thing. As planned, the alarm sounded, was quickly turned off, and we ventured back into the land of nod. Much later we awoke, much refreshed & began tinkering about for a bit (as Carnies do) before heading off, still relatively early, at about 11am.

As it turned out this was a stroke of genius, as most cellar doors don’t open until 11am so we were right on schedule.

Yabby Lake
This is a lovely spot with friendly staff and a warm welcoming atmosphere. There are also some interesting works of sculpture on the lawns in front of the vines as well.

They had 10% off for purchases over six bottles & so of course, we did.
2014 Pink Claw Grenache Rosé
2010 Yabby Lake Cuvée Nina
2013 Yabby Lake Pinot Noir
2013 Yabby Lake Syrah
Buying a dozen at the very first vineyard may be an indication that we peaked a bit early.

Willow Creek

Stylish Estate but we had some trouble attracting anyone’s attention for a good while. Only a couple of wines here took our fancy.
2011 Pinot Noir
2013 Malakoff Shiraz
We’d been here previously for a wedding & it’s a perfect setting for such an occasion. Or any other occasion that combines good food, fine wine, dear friends, music & a pleasant outlook

Port Phillip Estate

Very confronting Architecture. Watch out for the “Get Smart” style of automatically opening door with the big knob on it. From the car park it kinda looks like a very large long bomb shelter. Huge long windowless wavy wall of very thick concrete that does a great job of protecting the vines from the wind no doubt. Very stylish & dramatic designs within.

Here we tasted a couple of Chardy & Shiraz but found nothin special.
Lunch was noice if not a bit overpriced for what it was. A pleasant outlook.

All very posh with a big deck (good for taking wefies on)

Paringa Estate

Another welcoming & friendly Estate. It was here that we picked up on it being worth a visit to Stonier (not on our list)

These buds need a bit more time on the vine

2 exceptional wines here that had to come home with us were
2012 Estate Chardonnay
2010 Estate Shiraz

Stonier Wines
Pick of the day & ended up buying a couple of everything we tasted
2013 Stonier Chardonnay
2012 Stonier Reserve Chardonnay
2010 Stonier KBS Chardonnay
2013 Stonier Pinot Noir
2012 Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir
201x St Jacks Ridge Pinot Noir

Great tree out the front

Ten Minutes by Tractor

Pretty vineyard & a place that would be good to come back to for a meal as well. Lot’s of old tractors about to remind you of where you are.

The place appears to run very smoothly on a good ration of Tractor Oil.

With the truck nearly full, we only had room for a couple of
2012 TMBT Estate Chardonnay

We passed Point Leo along the way but alas there were no waves to be found.

A top way to spend a day in vineyards far far away.

18 Nov This entry was published on 18/11/2014 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.