Where to start? No really... where on earth do you start trying to pick wineries in a different country when all you know from the region is Yellow Tail, Blass and Penfolds? We live in California and I think that my wife has high standards when it comes to being a wine-tourist. So when we visited Australia I wanted a real wine tour, not some run-of-the-mill milk run around to all the well known places. I wanted to impress her with the backstage pass of wine tours to all the best places for Australian that we could cram into two days!

After days trying to research the Clare and Barossa regions thankfully a friend recommended Bums on Seats. BoS was really easy to deal with and had set prices so we knew what we were in for upfront. Paul our driver was simply amazing! He gave us the option to either pick the wineries we thought we might like OR let him show us the places he knew we'd enjoy.

Day one was Clare Valley - he asked questions and we talked all the way out to this region, and by the time we arrived he knew where we should go. It was a perfect day and we managed to squeeze in 6 excellent boutique "cellar doors" (Australian for tasting room).

Day two was Barossa Valley, and by now Paul had us figured out - so we went straight to work. The group was larger and moved slower so we were limited to 5 excellent wineries, we got to meet a few wine makers, had a second excellent lunch and even got to see some kangaroos along the way. At the end of the day we squeezed in a quick trip to Jacobs Creek (not counted in the 5 cellar doors!). At this point Paul was just showing off - letting us experience the stark differences between the boutique wineries we'd seen and a mega winery. The contrast was a great way to show us just how special our two days had been!

Don't get me wrong, BoS would surely have happily stopped at each of the well known wineries we drove past, and we're really glad they didn't!