Sparkling, White and Red

We spent our last full day in Australia experiencing a bit of heaven in the Yarra Valley. Even the name sounds heavenly, don't you think? As all you wine connoisseurs know, the Yarra Valley is one of Australia's premier wine growing regions. Autumn in the Yarra Valley is especially beautiful with all the orange, yellow and red leaves. Helen contacted her friend to ask which wineries would be the best to visit on our day trip and not only did he respond, but he went ahead and booked us into his top three choices. As a result, we had tastings booked, a tour, a lunch reservation and even a discount at one of the wineries. 

We started our day by tasting the sparkling wines with some delicious chutneys at Domaine Chandon. We then drove only a couple kilometers down the road to Rochford where we started at the top and sampled our way through at least 15 of their wines. Lunch at Rochford was a meat extravaganza  - I had the lamb shank and Kevin had the ribeye (thanks, Scott, for taking us all out). I elected to have the pumpkin soup to start and Kevin passed on the starter to enjoy the dessert platter which he kindly shared with me. It was a very decadent lunch! We left Rochford well fed with wine bottles in hand or case (right, Helen :) Our final winery was Tarrawarra where the landscape was breathtaking as was the Reserve Chardonnay. I have a whole new appreciation for white wine now. If owning a winery was not enough, the owners also built a multi-million dollar art gallery on the estate. We finished the day by sitting around the fireplace at Helen's house. Perfect...

Our first stop, Domaine Chandon - check out that view!

The four sparkling tasters. The sparkling pinot joined us on our trip home :)

The tasting list at Rochford. "I recommend you start from the top and work your way down" (quoted from Mr. Brenton).

This photo was taken at the Rochford winery at about the 2008 Yarra Valley Pinot Noir and by the looks of it, Helen had a couple more Chardonnay samples than the rest of the group.

The Yarra Valley tasters at the third stop, Tarrawarra: Maggie, Scott, Helen, Chris, Kevin, Lori and Caleb.

I will take one bottle of the Reserve Chardonnay for the road, please.

Caleb was in charge of guarding all of our wine purchases.