Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Help me arrange a Yarra Valley wine tour

Hi,
How would you suggest we go about a tour of a few wineries this weekend?
As it's Easter I expect all Yarra Valley businesses to be shut on Friday and Sunday, but hope we can have a good day on Saturday.

All our accommodation is set and car hire booked, so I'd appreciate feedback on these places.

Who has visited the Yarra Valley for the purpose of wine tasting?
Can you recommend a tour or should we just pick a few good places and be very picky with the wine (and 'taste', not drink?) :eek:

Online search to date:
Google list (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=+Yarra+Valley+tourism&meta=)
Visityarravalley.com.au, the Yarra Valley Regional Tourism Association Inc’s website (http://www.visityarravalley.com.au/visityarravalley.asp)
How about a walking wine tour (http://www.visityarravalley.com.au/accom_result1.asp?code=16984)?

Yarra Valley Winery Tours (De Bortoli or Domaine Chandon lunch package) -Yarra Valley pick up (http://www.visityarravalley.com.au/tours2.asp?tourcode=4455)
Yarra Valley Winery Tours (Boutique package) - Yarra Valley pick up (http://www.visityarravalley.com.au/tours2.asp?tourcode=4457)

I'd rather do it just by ourselves.

Realistically, could we drive to the most distant ones, park somewhere convenient and walk (and drink) to a few, have lunch, walk a few more, then drive back after sobering up? :)

Wineries I hope are open for a visit (prefer the smaller ones but want to see the big ones' setup. Big tourism operations, I believe):
De Bortoli (http://www.debortoli.com.au/)
Domaine Chandon (http://www.chandon.com.au/); Cellar Door (http://www.yarra-valley.net.au/domaine_chandon/qammn1.htm)
Coldstream Hills Wines (http://www.coldstreamhills.com.au/) (founder James Halliday?)
Seville Estate (http://www.sevilleestate.com.au/)
Yering Station (http://www.yering.com/cpa/htm/htm_article.asp?page_id=58)
Yarra Burn (http://www.yarraburn.com.au/home.html)

(Asking as access to these sites is blocked in the office; will look at reviews which are at other sites, eg Bestrestaurants (http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au/restaurants/VIC-Melbourne-debortoliwinery.aspx)info).

FYI If anyone is interested in this in the future, here is a good resource.

www.wineyarravalley.com
Major Events (http://www.wineyarravalley.com/www/338/1001785/displayarticle/1001784.html)
Yarra Valley Grape Grazing Festival
The Yarra Valley Harvest Celebration - February 29th - March 8th 2008
Rochford Wines Summer Music Festival, Melba Festival
Shedfest
Yarra Valley Wine and Cheese Trails - NEW! (this is what I'll try to do)

Event Search (http://www.wineyarravalley.com/www/338/1001785/1001564.asp) (by winery or date!) eg
Summer Jazz at Seville Hill (http://www.wineyarravalley.com/www/338/1001785/1001559.asp?pub=1&pagemode=2&objectid=1004056)
Summer Jazz at Vines Restaurant (http://www.wineyarravalley.com/www/338/1001785/1001559.asp?pub=1&pagemode=2&objectid=1003823) (30 Mar 08 and through April at other wineries)

All wineries are listed, with a contact page for each, here (http://www.wineyarravalley.com/www/338/1001785/displayarticle/1001873.html). 84 pages in all. Hopefully I'll see a few.

Since I tend to drink a lot a wine tours, Mrs. SPSTiger and I booked a private tour through these folks http://www.epicureantours.com.au/ back in December. They had been recommended by both the Westin and Park Hyatt concierges. Doing it ourselves was never really an option. We ended up making 4 stops on our day trip: Yarra Valley Dairy, Yering Station, Coldstream Hills, and De Bortli. We were told a lot of the high end wine producers like Yarra Yarra and Yarra Yering did not have cellar doors that accepted visitors without appointments. Don't know if if this was actually true or not.

In any case, we had a wonderful day trip to the Yarra. Yarra Valley Dairy had some excellent cheeses and wines from smaller producers in the region.

Yering Station was next and I think our favorite of the day. They poured their whole range of wines, including many of their reserve wines. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time there. We then had a nice lunch at the onsite cafe there.

Next stop was Coldstream Hills. Even though we were the only ones there at the time, it was just as impersonal as if we arrived with a tour bus of 50 people. I ended up buying James Halliday's review book, which we were told was signed by him. I've flipped through all of the pages and I can't for the life of me find where he signed. I would definitely take a pass if I ever came back to the Yarra.

We finished off with a private wine and cheese tasting at De Bortli. It was quite a nice experience, a close second to Yering Station. However, I can't comment on how the regular tasting is.

Great news. We have visited THREE wine regions over the Easter long weekend. :)isiors
All v. different and visitors would benefit from avoiding tourist traps.

Reports to come.

I have started the reports, but have a few tips for visitors, which may help you.

Yarra Valley is very, very easy to get to, via a freeway which becomes the highway, all the way to Coldstream.
Once you have a 'wineries of the Yarra Valley' map it is very easy to navigate.

Mornington Peninsula is slightly more difficult to navigate between wineries.
Being a popular holiday destination it will be more crowded most weekends and holidays. Most Peninsula wineries charge for tastings, unlike those in Yarra Valley.

Sunbury, approx 15km north of Melbourne Airport, has its own winery region and it is possible to visit two or three if you have a couple of hours to spare before returning your hire car to MEL. There are beautiful bluestone buildings and some interesting scenery at points along the way. The nearest winery is closer than this, maybe 8km away and worth a look if you have 60-90 minutes to spare.

:p