VIC: A day in Yarra Valley

The last out of Melbourne trip I had with sis and family was Yarra Valley. The plan was to have lunch there. Having heard some reviews on Yering Station, we thought of having our lunch there. However it was quite spontaneous so we didn't make any reservation and of course, at such a beautiful Saturday it was fully booked. On hindsight, it was probably a good thing because Yering Station restaurant feels a little too sterile and posh to my liking for a comfortable day out.

We finally settled for lunch at Medhurst Cellar Door and Cafe. This definitely feels more like home and easier on the pocket. I shared a Fisherman's Paddle - 3 fish with salad, crostini and herb mayo ($30) with sis. BIL has issue with seafood so he opted for a Chicken Sambo ($18) and little niece got her own Kid's Cheese Toasty ($7).

Fisherman's paddle

Kid's cheese toasties

No photo of Chicken Sambo because BIL had already started on his meal before we took any photo. Grin. Little niece had bits from the fisherman paddle as she absolutely loved the smokes salmon pate.

Medhurst is after all a cellar so we head over to the tasting counter to kick off our tasting session. I shared with sis as she would need to take over the driving after BIL had a couple of drinks. We decided to open a bottle to have it with our dessert (corkage fee applied though). Of course we had dessert as all good meal finished with a dessert or two. The spread of sweet treats were display on the counter and we have already totally check out the desserts while waiting for our food. ;)

Our pick was vanilla slice after read somewhere that they made very good vanilla slice... and it was! Grin - and the wine as a dessert wine. LOL

Happy tummy makes a happy us. After lunch, we make our way to Domaine Chandon. There seem to be a consensus that Domaine Chandon has the best view among the vineyards, so that's our next stop!

Domaine Chandon's view does live up to it's reputation and the wide open space makes little niece ran happy. This place is definitely more popular comparatively as the crowd is bigger but this is a bigger place too.

Sis and I sat out on this one, only BIL did some wine tasting. Wine tasting is not free at Chandon though. BIL walked away with a bottle to bring to his friend's house for dinner at night.

We decided to return to Yering Station again after Domaine Chandon as we were there for a very short while earlier. In my very humble opinion, of the three wineries we visited Yering Station's view is placed at the third position. I have no comment on the food though as we didn't eat there but as a tourist, the place itself did not carry a friendly vibe.

Wineries done, next up - chocolate!

No - this not edible..

It is not the mannequin, it's the metre long chocolate!

Book or chocolate or both? ;)

And - of course we had to have a takeaway ice-cream for the road trip back ;)

Side note: I think the secret to a good night's sleep is warm feet!