Once
the serious trophy collection business of the National Meet had been a
taken care of (You've already read that bit.) Shane and I could get down
to the next order of business, the wineries. Tuesday's task was to visit
the handful of vineyards on the Bellarine Peninsula past Geelong, I'm sure
they are very nice, but due to very poor signage, we couldn't find them.
The scenery was quite nice though, with crystal clear water and a view
across Port Philip bay to the skyline of Melbourne. I can see why people
flock down there for holidays, the whole place is full of sleepy seaside
towns and rugged beaches, I'm sure it would have seemed less idyllic if
the sun hadn't been shining. I wanted to have a look around Barwon Heads,
home of 'Sea Change', but the place is very different from the television
projection, and the most recognisable piece (the Court House) is not even
there! At last we found a winery, along a 4km dirt road, in the middle
of a sheep station, The Minya at Connewarre set on the banks of a creek
with lots of wildlife and waterbirds. The hosts were very friendly, and
we even had a beautiful steak lunch while sampling their wares, including
an amazing blended port.
We set off for Torquay and surfing country, and we stumbled into the Rip Curl Pro surfing comp out near the 12 apostles (there are some missing though). Then there is the best bit, the Great Ocean Road, winding along the edge of the cliffs past Lorne to Apollo Bay (after a bit of wheel nut tightening, and a good chase after a Falcon). Time to find somewhere to stay. "No we don't want to spend $100 per night, is there somewhere cheaper you could recommend?". "I don't know" was the reply from Mrs Flag. So we found a caravan park the name of which I can't recall because we had to pay cash, no questions asked, thank you very much. There is a good Italian / Pizza place in the main street that caters for all tastes, and was full of backpackers. The cabin only had a fan heater, it was 6 degrees inside in the morning, and it was a mere 5 minute wait for the hot water to arrive in the morning, not the best $55 we spent.
Wednesday dawned bright and sunny again, we set off for the rest of the Great Ocean Road, across the Ottway Range to Port Campbell and Warrnambool for lunch. The open sheep grazing countryside turns dry from here, they have had a dry couple of seasons. We arrived at Drumborg where Seppelt have a vineyard, the town is an 800m stretch of road with nothing in between, no shop, no servo, no house, nothing. There was nothing at the vineyard either, the Cabernet crop had not shown up this year. We headed for Portland and stopped in at Barrett's of Gorae West, the wine was average, and the samples on the small side, this area is not suited to winegrowing. Another cabin to sleep in, this one was much better but I might have been warm if I had slept directly under the heater thing. Portland is full of history with at least a dozen major shipwrecks in the port area alone, the tall ships from Melbourne used to race across the bay and crash straight into the western shore!
Thursday, sunshine again (I came down here to see some foul weather) north to Crawford's at Condah, a mixed sheep, cattle and wine property, these days the wine pays for the rest, and very nice it is too. On through Hamilton, and through the rugged Grampians to Hall's Gap, just a holiday place where bushwalking seems to be the only thing to do, on to The Gap Winery with spectacular mountain views. One of the main attractions was next, the town of Great Western home of some of our oldest wineries, Best's established in 1866 and in the Thompson family since 1920 has a beautiful wooden barn as their tasting area, and over 50 varieties of vines growing. Seppelt Great Western has kilometers of heritage listed underground cellars dug after the goldrush with a capacity of 2.5 million bottles. These two wineries are rated in the top ten in the country. We headed for Ararat for a well deserved rest in a motel (for a change) and a Chinese meal, I figure they've had Chinese food there since the gold rush!
Friday, more sunshine, courtesy of the northerly breeze, a comfortable cruise up the Pyrenees Highway took us to Avoca, where some morning tea prepared as for a hard day ahead. Blue Pyrenees Estate owned by Remi Martin started out producing Brandy in the sixties, and expanded to wine in the eighties with over 200 Ha under vine. They have excellent tasting facilities and 4 labels in their range, they have a special Minus 5 range, where the grapes are picked at night in the middle of winter and are crushed while they still have ice on them. Dalwhinnie Vineyard's 16 Ha of vines is situated at the top of a gully well protected from the wind, they are a premium wine producer and have prices to match. Next door is Taltarni, with 130 Ha under vine with a French, an American, and an Aussie winemaker. Redbank Winery seemed over priced, so they where the only one we visited that did not score a sale. After lunch at a great country pub, another pleasant drive towards the Macedon area through such places as Natte Yallock to the Tipperary Hill Estate at Maryborough. Down the highway to Castlemaine and Kyneton and Woodend, heading for Hanging Rock (somewhere I specially wanted to go).
The Hanging Rock Winery, run by John Ellis and his wife Anne (Tyrrell) have the most magnificent view of Hanging Rock and the Macedon Range, the climate is very cold, they get snow every year and have photos of inches of snow on their barrels outside. With just 6 Ha under vine, they bring in grapes from their other vines at Heathcote (which is even colder) and produce a Heathcote Shiraz which can be cellared for 20 years. They also host Drydens Run a $150 per night country retreat with 4 cabins. It was late afternoon with the sun on the rock and I wanted to take a quick walk up there, but it costs $7 to get into the place, so I settled for a few pictures instead. One more winery to go for the day, (this one stays open to 6pm, we got to the first one at 9am - tough work this) Glen Erin Vineyard Retreat has a large restaurant and accommodation at $200 per night, so we settled for a night in hospital. No, not to dry out from the tasting, it just seemed to be the best place to stay in Lancefield. It was actually a B&B that used to be the local hospital, and still comes complete with the wards to sleep in, wheelchair access in the showers etc. It was certainly the most interesting place we stayed and only $60 for the room and brekky. A quick phone call to Maurice and Jo, found us a bed for the next night.
Saturday was very windy, 30 knots from the north but warm and sunny. The first stop was Cleveland Winery, just outside town (it opened the earliest, at 9am) then up to Knight Granite Hills on a rocky windswept sheep property at 550m above sea level. A bit further up the road and up the mountain is Cobaw Ridge via several km of rough dirt road not suited to a CRX loaded with 5 cases of wine and the rest of the gear. (Is it bad when you can't fit your hand over the top of the rear tyres?) It was worth the drive, they produce the most magnificent Shiraz and a good Chardonnay and a French variety Lagrein, that's all, just 4 Ha of vines, no sheep. Alan Cooper, the winemaker was very friendly and informative, we even got to taste some fermenting shiraz grapes. With another half dozen aboard we scraped our way back down the road, onto the highway for Sunbury, and the Mt Aitken Estate. This place was amazing, the cellar, tasting rooms and restaurant are all mixed together, the restaurant is wall to wall with thousands of ancient bottles of wine, there is a glass wall leading to their huge ex-Bundaberg Rum ageing vats, and the cellar with wonderful character. Their labels have won international acclaim, and their Port was 3rd in the world in 1998. They also make various herbal wines, which are "interesting".
It was still early in the day, so we decided to do the Yarra Valley as well, after a trek across the top of Melbourne, and up the Yarra Valley found us at De Bortoli at Dixons Creek. It was lunch time so we decided to find a snack, they have a very posh restaurant, so instead of a pie and peas, it was Nocchi. I am a great fan of their Noble One botrytis dessert wine, so when I saw an 1982 vintage for $15 a glass ($120 per bottle) I thought it was Christmas, Shane wasn't impressed with it but it was amazing. The tasting area was a bit crowded with truckloads of yuppie tourists flocking in, most of the wine is widely available so there was little point stretching the budget even more. We couldn't go past Domaine Chandon, even with a chamber music festival in full swing. Instead of tasting, they charge $5 per glass of champers from a menu with cheese and crackers to soak it up, this is great if you haven't been to 6 other wineries that day! Anyway, they make great sparkling wines, and the atmosphere their is really classy. We managed to keep Maurice and Jo up way too late that night and repacked all the wine so we could offload some to Campbell to transport for us, so he too could ride on the bump stops all the way to Qld.
Sunday morning it
was time to skip the State, one more winery to visit (after a quick trip
back to Michelton) Chateau Tabilk at Nagambie, another winery set up in
the 1860s with some of the original vines still producing Shiraz, a huge
place with 7km of Goulburn River frontage and steeped in history, the underground
cellars with hundred year old cobwebs intact, and a wall full of awards
so old they can't be read, and heritage listed buildings. So that was it
for the wine tour, just the long trip home, back to Forbes to the pub for
a juicy steak and a beer (for a change) and the Ben Hall Motor Inn again
for a good sleep. Once again Shane slept in and we got a late start in
the morning, we had an uneventful trip back and arrived at about 7pm in
rainy Brisbane.
| Total Distance | 5,226 km |
| Total Fuel used | 409 litres |
| Highest / Lowest / Average Price of PULP c/l | 99.9 / 84.1 / 91 |
| Average Fuel Economy | 13km/l |
| Road Travelling Time - Brisbane - Melbourne | 17hrs 25mins |
| Road Travelling Time - Melbourne - Brisbane | 17hrs 30mins |
| Average Road Speed both ways | 97 kph |
| Disc pad wear | 4mm |
| Tyre wear | Unmentionable |
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