A Yarra Valley
Degustation Wine Tour
with your dog
If you love food as much as you love wine and your puppy –
then this degustation tour is pawfect for you.
Remember the progressive dinner parties of the 80s? When you went from place to place, having something fabulous to eat at each one? Well, this is the equivalent food & wine tasting tour – and bonus – you get to bring your dog!
What's included?
We’ll start the day at Rob Dolan or Boat O Craigo (depending on where we collect you from) with a wine tasting paired with a selection of mouthwatering croissants and Danish pastries. Sip a Blanc de Blanc with your butter croissant, a Pinot Gris with a raspberry Danish, see how Chardonnay pairs with an escargot, or a Pinot Noir with a cherry Danish.
Experience a tasting flight of Mandala Wines, paired superbly with the ideal charcuterie and small goods made on site by Divino restaurant’s legendary Italian chef Luca – think capicola, chicken parfait, maybe some Wagyu carpaccio, or porcini truffle arancini – their ingredients are local, their veggie garden provides them with seasonal produce so the offerings will change with the weather and what’s fresh and best.
Next, we’ll scoot over to Steels Gate winery cellar door for a top-shelf wine tasting and where we can discuss their restaurant’s menu and which wine would pair best with the courses you’re leaning towards for lunch.
At 1.30pm sit down to lunch in their restaurant – the covered deck has sweeping views for you to drink in as you enjoy your leisurely three courses and all the while you’ll have your pupster by your side. There’s something special about knowing you’ve paired your food with the perfect glass of wine.
In a private tasting room at Payten & Jones, you’ll sample two Yarra Valley cheeses made by Stone & Crowe – Galactic, a soft young cow’s milk and Aged Moonshine, a hard cheddar, with Australian Harvest’s olive tapenade, also made here in the valley. See how well they pair with P&J’s Chardonnay, Sangiovese and Pinot Noir and what each flavour does to your palate. And if by now you’re just after a taste, we’ll wrap the rest of your cheese and tapenade so you can take it home with you.
And for our final tasting of the tour – we can head to another winery, or have a gin or beer tasting paddle to cleanse your palate! For gin lovers, you can sample Alchemy’s gins (and vodkas) at Rochford Winery or The Laneway, in a relaxed garden cafe setting, next to Alchemy’s distillery. Or if we’re driving you home to Melbourne, we can stop in at the decadent Naught Gin in Eltham for a trio of amuse-bouche gin cocktails! Now you’re talking!!
Of course, if you’d prefer a paired beer tasting, we’ll head around the corner to Watts River Brewing – where Ben & Aaron, two ex-White Rabbit brewers, draw inspiration from old-world Belgian ales and new-world craft beers, to brew their distinctive beer, on-site, for you to experience in a tasting paddle. And it comes paired with the best beer snacks in the business!
Optional Extras
If you’re celebrating a birthday or a special occasion, let us ‘big it up’ for you – & have a delicious cake made for you, which we’ll present you with when we arrive to pick you up for your tour, and we’ll pop it in your fridge with a bottle of the region’s finest sparkling to enjoy when you get home.
Let us put together a Yarra Valley Hamper for you full of our region’s tastiest and most well-known produce – for you to give as a gift or enjoy yourselves. Choose a sweet hamper, or savoury or even a mix of both!
