02 Mar 2023
This wonderful tour was not only guided it was curated. Our guide Simon engaged us in conversation about our tastes and experiences with wine from the moment we were underway from our hotel is his comfortable Mercedes van. Although the first stop on our wine tour was pre-booked and essentially private until the very end, subsequent stops were scheduled on route in accordance with what we had shared with him.
His knowledge of wines and the wine country was deep and thoughtful but unlike some wine tours we have been on, Simon let the winery representatives talk for themselves and confined his own commentaries to the transits between locations. After a few questions, he picked a perfect lunch spot for us that proved a pleasant but not excessively long interlude in a delightful day. Service was door to door from our hotel in Melbourne. Along the way there were ample opportunities to view wildlife in natural settings, and we had some spectacular viewing of koalas along with very good viewing of kangaroos and numerous birds. Simon also seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora as he pointed out the many different species of tree, shrub, and flowering plant we passed during our wonderful day with him. Overall rating? Enough stars to fill the Southern Cross and its pointers beside!