Wombat in the Yarra Valley

You were probably expecting to hear about the Great Ocean Road, but I forgot about our wine tour to the Yarra Valley, so you'll have to wait another day before hearing about the Great Ocean Road.

We had signed up for a wine tour with the Australian Wine Tour Company through the Yarra Valley. We took a small 20 person bus to the Yarra Valley and our first stop was Yering Farm. This winery is a family run business and does not sell many bottles outside of their shop. They had converted an old hay barn as their cellar door.


Wombat enjoyed the view of the valley.


Then, wombat started drinking. It was only 10:30 AM, but he was offered over 10 different types of wine. He didn't know what to choose.


Our next stop was Rochard. Besides providing lunch, they had a tower that overlooked their vineyards. Cindy enjoyed the view.


We got up close and personal with some grapes, but didn't taste any of them.


We also stopped at Yering Station, but no pictures came from our stop there. The exciting part of Yering Station was finding some truffle mixture made by Tetsuya's that is designated to mix with butter and create yummy truffle butter!

Our last stop of the day was Chandon, which is associated with Moet & Chandon. We went on a mini tour of how champagne/sparkling wine were made and were able to go into the room with all the bottles that were resting on racks. We weren't allowed to touch anything so Wombat was sad that he couldn't play with the bottles.


We were offered a full glass of bubbly before being able to taste their other bubbly and wines that Chandon produces. Wombat was excited to be around all these bottles of yummy tasting wines.



By the end of our tour, we had drank our fair share of wines and were looking forward to the nap on our car ride home. Maybe from all the wine, Cindy was drunk at dinner because this is the conversation that took place. Early on, Cindy had decided that she was going to order steak tartare, while David and I debated on what to get.

Waiter: Can I take your order?
Cindy: I'd like the Steak Tartare... Medium
Waiter: ummm...
(As David and Denise try to explain to Cindy that Steak Tartare is chopped up raw/rare steak, they can't stop giggling inside)

Amazingly, the waiter told us stories of how he has served steak tartare to other customers and they had told him that he had forgotten to cook their steaks. So, he was glad that Cindy had made the medium comment so that they could fix the situation immediately.

The second best part of this story besides the "medium" comment was that as Cindy was looking for other items to order, the waiter would try to explain her other items on the menu and Cindy would instantly put on a sour face when she heard something she didn't like or want.
Finally our waiter decided to let Cindy decide on her own and he would come back.

For the rest of the night, I couldn't stop laughing every time I thought of the story.

Anyways, tomorrow will be about the Great Ocean Road!