Visiting Melbourne for the first time, and felt that a Yarra wine tour would be a good way to spend a family afternoon. We were not disappointed...
The trip started with a free coffee (voucher provided as part of the tour) outside the Arts Centre, where we picked up the minibus and met our guide/driver, Al. He was great fun and was a mine of information not only about the city and the wineries but also Sydney and Tasmania where we plan to visit later. It took an hour or so to get to the Yarra valley - mainly motorway etc so not the most picturesque, but Al kept us entertained and it went quite quickly.
Once there the scenery was beautiful, if a bit wet and cold on the day (but all of the activities were indoors so not a problem). We visited three wineries, with about an hour at each. We'd have happily stayed longer at any of them, but Al would appear when it was approaching time to head off and did a good job of keeping us on track.
We started at Helen & Joey then across the road to St Huberts. In both cases we were able to sample a selection of different types of wines, with a bit of info given about each and an expert on hand to answer any questions we had (to be honest we didn't have many and just enjoyed it as a family afternoon out to sip and chat). St Huberts was our favourite of these. It was a bit more "upbeat" in it's welcome and delivery, and had the added bonus of each being able to select our favourite and be given a bottle to take away. After these we had the choice to go to a third winery or a gin distillery. We opted for wine, but the two are across the road from each other so it was up to each individual's preference.
The third winery was Payten & Jones, much smaller than the previous two but a more personal touch. The tasting here was not included in the price (and neither would it have been at the distillery). We could have opted just to buy a glass of wine to finish the day off, or nothing at all, but we decided to go for it and were rewarded with another lovely selection. It was $15 per head, but this was refunded against any bottle purchase (which we did).
Once done there we were driven back to the city, chatting with Al (or in some cases dozing).
All in all a very good trip that well lived up to our expectations and which I would certainly recommend.