The Cube

A couple of my friends visited me early last month so I joined them and played tourist in Melbourne. One of the activities was a wine tour to Yarra Valley. My friends looked up the tour and booked it through Klook. Not sponsored so we paid and showed up at the picked up point at Arts Centre Melbourne Spire. Thank you Melbourne for a fairly good weather day. 

Our first stop was the popular Yering Station Winery. I didn't have a good experience the last I visited Yering Station Winery but it was remedied this time. The staff who gave us the guided wine tasting was excellent and witty, which attributed to a positive experience. 

After the wine tasting session, we were given some time to walkabout at the grounds. I had very similar photos from previous visit too.

We then moved on to the second winery, Soumah. Soumah is an abbreviation for "South of Maroondah", a highway in Victoria. 

After wine tasting, we get to choose which wine we want for lunch. We were given a full glass of the wine we chose to accompany our lunch. Lunch selection was pre-ordered when we were in the bus on the way to Yarra Valley. 

Antipasti was shared and my lunch selection was the Fettine (pan grilled minute steak, served medium, garlic butter roasted mushroom cap, pecorino polenta chips, glazed carrots, cavolo nero, Syrah jus) and paired with The Butcher. One of my friends chose grilled barramundi, served with steamed green beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic and caper broth. Another has intolerance to dairy products so her perocino polenta chips were swapped to a different side. 

This venue gave a more upmarket feel but the wines weren't to my taste unfortunately but beautiful grounds though. We did a quick round the lake. 

A couple of the tour members opted for gin tasting and they were ushered to the Four Pillars Gin across the road. From the wine tour organiser website, it looks like there also also an option to switch to beer. We continued with wine option and stayed at our fourth tasting at Payten & Jones. I prefer the wines from the first 2 wineries comparatively. 

Last stop was chocolate and/or ice-cream dessert before we were dropped back in Melbourne. We chose ice-cream.