Today friends Nicole, Paul and Lucy helped me tick off another item on my 30 before 30 list:
4. Visit wineries in the Yarra Valley.
First we stopped in Yarra Glen for coffee and to plot our Shortest Lunch route. Timed to coincide with the winter solstice, held on the shortest weekend of the year, Shortest Lunch is an annual event where smaller winemakers in the Yarra Valley offer small meals and wine tastings. The idea is you visit a few wineries and partake in a progressive lunch. This event is one of my favourites - it's at least my fourth time attending.
Our first stop was Graeme Miller Wines where we began drinking wine tasting at 11:10am. The chicken, vegetable and chickpea soup was quite nice but they were also offering pumpkin ravioli. Pumpkin, blerk.
It was an Aussie beef burger with caramelized onion and homemade chutney at Yilenna Park, where I had a really interesting chat with one of the winemakers. Their vines were saved during the Black Saturday fires by an underground watering system, although the crop was ruined by smoke. It's amazing the number of factors that can effect the taste of wine.
My third meal was spanish paella with great chunks of prawns, calamari, chicken and chorizo at Boat O'Craigo. At this stage I'll point out I was sharing these dishes and not eating the whole plate myself. ;)
But no way was I sharing my hot apple pie at Yering Farm Winery. This was the one winery I've been to every year - skipping it wasn't even discussed. We weren't missing that apple pie!
And with that we were pleasantly stuffed and headed for home. :)
9 down, 21 to go. (And 8 and a half months down, 3 and a half to go.)
