Wine, Cheese, Gin, Pizza and Chocolate in One Day

A full day out of Melbourne into the Yarra Valley, with every tasting fee already paid and nothing to settle at the door.

The first stop is Rochford, one of the valley's larger wineries, for a guided tasting and the lookout tower over the vines. The Yarra is a cool-climate region, which is the technical reason its wines taste the way they do: slower ripening, higher acidity, and pinot noir and chardonnay that behave more like Burgundy than like the rest of Australia.

At Coldstream Dairy the cheese board comes on a working farm rather than in a tasting room. Then Stag Lane, a farm distillery making gin from botanicals grown nearby, with a guided tasting and a wood-fired pizza to go with it, which is a more sensible pairing than it sounds because the botanicals and the char work together.

Healesville gives you free time and a coffee on the house, to walk the main street with its cellar doors and food shops. The last stop is the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie, where you taste through a range while European chocolatiers work behind the glass.

Hotel pick-up from selected addresses, air-conditioned coach, Wi-Fi on board, and commentary available in sixteen languages.

Up to fifteen travellers. Minimum drinking age eighteen. Large bags, prams, luggage and walkers cannot be carried. The operator can substitute other high-quality venues if a regular stop cannot take the group.