Planing a trip to Australia, i am looking for advice from Australia-Experts.

Which wineries would be the most interesting in either of the following areas:

a) Barossa Valley (or alternatively Adelaide Hills)

b) Yarra Valley

c) Tasmania

Which wineries would be the most interesting to visit considering the tour they offer ?
Which wineries would be the most interesting considering the wines they offer ?

A few points:
- i'd like to avoid the more 'industrial' wineries
- i'd like to discover good (small) wineries that are unlikely to be found in Europe
- the wineries should offer a few good white wines, not only red wines

Considering Region a), would you recommend a visit to Adelaide Hills or Barossa Valley?
(Both would take too much time, unless it could be done in 1 day )

Considering Region c) Tasmania, i read about 'Moorilla Estate' offering good white's and having a good restaurant. Worth a visit ?

Also has anyone had a good experience with some organized wine-tours in the Regions a) and b) ? Which wine-tour would you recommend ? (preferably very small groups)

Now i know i'm asking lots of questions but maybe someone has recommendations for real good restaurants in the regions of:
Adelaide,
Cape Jervis,
Mt. Gambier,
Warnabool,
Melbourne,
Canberra,
Sydney,

and Tasmania (Hobart, Strahan, Devonport, Launceston, Bicheno, Port Arthur)

Finally a non-food question:
Could anyone recommend a 1 day tour to the blue mountains, starting in Sydney
(something in-between wheelchair and hill-climbing )

Don't have time to address all your questions but what I can suggest is you spend some time in Barossa Valley... it's fantastic there.

Most of the wineries are very close to each other; it'd certainly be an easy, short-distance drive to visit quite a few of them.

I particularly enjoyed visiting (in no particular orde) Kaesler, Yalumba, Two Hands, Barossa Valley Estates, Torbreck, Peter Lehmann, and Elderton.

We visited some other wineries in the Barossa but those were the more enjoyable ones. There are many smaller wineries in the Barossa and, as mentioned earlier, they're within fairly close proximity of each other.

Great place for lunch/coffee is The Blond Cafe in the town of Nuriootpa (sp?), which is in the heart of the Barossa Valley.

More later if/when I have time.

quote:

Originally posted by duckfaninmt:
Don't have time to address all your questions but what I can suggest is you spend some time in Barossa Valley... it's fantastic there.

Most of the wineries are very close to each other; it'd certainly be an easy, short-distance drive to visit quite a few of them.

I particularly enjoyed visiting (in no particular orde) Kaesler, Yalumba, Two Hands, Barossa Valley Estates, Torbreck, Peter Lehmann, and Elderton.

We visited some other wineries in the Barossa but those were the more enjoyable ones. There are many smaller wineries in the Barossa and, as mentioned earlier, they're within fairly close proximity of each other.

Great place for lunch/coffee is The Blond Cafe in the town of Nuriootpa (sp?), which is in the heart of the Barossa Valley.

More later if/when I have time.

Thanks duckfaninmt, every suggestion is much appreciated, i dont expect anyone to address all of my 100 questions

Heard a lot of wineries like Yalumbe, Two Hands, Torbreck on these boards, glad to hear they offer a nice tour as well. Yalumba is particularly interesting, since i am looking for good white's in particular. Have a great memory of some Yalumba Viognier Virgilius.

Thanks for the lunch suggestion as well.

Have you been driving through Barossa on your own or did you use some public transport or some organized tour ? I'd like to avoid driving when making a winery tour

Yalumba is one of my favorites. The tasting room is spacious and filled with lots of memorabilia, and the gardens are beautiful. Ditto for Peter Lehmann (although I'm not a huge fan of their wines as compared to the others).

Kaesler's tasting room is very nice as well - spacious and relaxing. They also have a restaurant on the property that I hear is quite good. To my knowledge it's only open a few days out of the week and was unfortunately not open during the brief period I was there. Elderton is just down the road. Smaller than I thought it'd be but it was nice nonetheless.

Penfolds is also nearby and I went there just to say I went there. Lots of fun stuff to see there (if you're into Penfolds) and they have a variety of activities available (tours, lunches, dinners). Forget about tasting anything really good; they won't be opening any RWT, Bin 707, Grange, or anything near the price range of those wines.

If I remember correctly, Two Hands, Barossa Valley Estate (BVE), and Torbreck (among others) are very close together, almost within walking distance. Two Hands's and BVE's buildings/wineries are more modern in their design (not that that's at all wrong) and their tasting rooms are quite pleasant and comfortable. BVE also has a lunch menu available. Torbreck's tasting room is tiny but who cares... you're drinking Torbrecks!

I really wanted to go to Greenock Creek while I was in the Barossa... I have enough of their wines that I really ought to own stock in the company. However, they were closed during the time I was there. They make some of my favorite Shiraz of all (Apricot Block, Creek Block, Alice's, Seven Acre) so if you have the opportunity to visit there by all means do it.

Also visited Turkey Flats but was unimpressed by the tasting room and the wines. I was told that the Charles Cimicky winery is nice but I just didn't have enough time to visit. Same with the Langmeil winery... heard it's very nice but just didn't have enough time.

I was fortunate to have a designated driver so I could taste all day long and not have to worry about driving. My time there was far too short - you could spend a month in the Clare, Barossa, and Eden Valleys and not be able to take it all in - so I didn't do any of the tours. Drink and eat was the game plan, which was successfully executed, by the way!

I wasn't there long enough to get the full skinny, but I personally doubt I'd be interested in doing an organized tour. Given the choice of the two (tour or public transport) I'd probably hire a driver for as long as I was out tasting.

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