Food Tours · Tour

A Midday Start, a Surprise Winery, and Apple Cider

The start time is the selling point. Pick-up is 11:45 and the bus leaves at noon sharp, which means you get a morning in Melbourne first and are back in the city by half past five. Three wineries, and the middle one is deliberately not fixed. Yering Station usually opens it: the historic estate, and the signature wines of a well-established producer. The second is a surprise, which keeps the tour fresh for the guides as much as the guests. Usually Yileena Park, where you sit on a deck looking at the Yarra Ranges over aged wines and a grazing platter. Sometimes Soumah, in the hills, with its aromatic wines and a piazza menu. Food at either is at your own expense. If it matters to you, ask them to confirm the itinerary for your date. Yering Farm finishes it, which is the rustic one, with more developed wines and an apple cider at the end, and cider after a day of wine is a better idea than it sounds. All the tasting fees are included. Ten to twenty guests, in English, which is smaller than most operators run. Grazing platters and nibbles can be bought at one of the wineries. Hotel pick-up is not included: it leaves from the Arts Centre spire. Not recommended if you are pregnant, have a spinal injury or a heart condition. One honest warning from the operator: Australian summer means sunshine and a certain number of flies. If that is not for you, this may not be the tour.