Review: Bellarine Peninsula Food and Wine Tour
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The Bellarine Peninsula is rapidly emerging as a top Victorian destination for lovers of fine food, wine, and craft beer.
Located east of the city of Geelong, the peninsula is home to 50-or-so wineries, breweries and providores. But with all that magnificent choice comes the heavy responsibility of choosing where to go, not to mention who will do the driving. It’s a far better idea to let someone else do both. Enter Andy’s Trails!
Having worked for several years in hospitality venues, owner and operator Andrew Tynan decided to change course and share his passion for the region’s hand-crafted libations directly with visitors. He established Andy’s Trails in 2017 with a selection of craft beer tours, before branching out into wine and gourmet food tasting experiences.
Today I’m joining the company’s small-group Bellarine Peninsula Food and Wine Tour. It visits five contrasting cellar doors, and on this occasion we’re heading for Basils Farm, Oakdene wines, Flying Brick Cider House, Yes Said the Seal, and Jack Rabbit wines. A platter-style lunch is included in the tour price.
Basils Farm is famous for its artisanal chardonnay, pinot noir, shiraz, rose and prosecco. The winery also produced its first sauvignon blanc in 2016. Try the young-vine pinot noir. It’s produced from a vine that was transplanted from Marysville following the devastating bushfires of 2009.
While I would normally like to explore a vineyard like this from top to bottom, I’m reminded by the signs around the property that snakes may also be out exploring. So, I restrict my wandering to the organic kitchen garden that supplies the winery’s café.
Oakdene vineyard is the next stop on our itinerary, and here I’m assured that the whimsical wine tasting room really is in the form of an upside down house (and not because I’m already tipsy after just one tasting, which is just as well, because there’s lots more to come!). The Halliday Wine Companion gave Oakdene’s sauvignon blanc a top ranking. For me, their William Shiraz is the pick of the bunch.
Before we depart for the Flying Brick Cider Company, Andy quietly gives me the heads up that we’re about to face a double header under one roof. He’s not wrong! The Flying Brick’s tasting room is also home to the fabulously-named Yes said the Seal wines. Where do we begin!
Yes said the Seal’s range of limited edition maritime climate wines includes an award-winning pinot noir. A bottle of the top notch rose is coming home with me.
The included tasting paddle of Flying Brick ciders is very generous. Given the number of wines I’ve already tasted today, I’m not super sorry that I don’t like beer or cider — but I’m assured by my fellow tour participants that each one is extremely good.
Flying Brick is also our lunch stop, and shared tasting plates materialise brimming with local produce. There are breads, olive oils, meats, and cheeses, and some seriously yummy salt and pepper calamari. It’s more than enough to fill us up.
Jack Rabbit is the most picturesque of our stops, and offers fabulous views towards the You Yangs under a dramatic sky. This acclaimed winery produces the full gamut of wine styles, including sparklings, both sweet and dry whites, roses, shiraz, and merlots. There’s something here to suit every taste.
All up today, I’ve tasted around 20 high quality wines and sampled plenty of amazing produce. This Bellarine Peninsula Food and Wine Tour has achieved its goal of showcasing a bit of everything the region has to offer.
One of the best things about this experience is that it’s not just a hop-on-hop-off tour of cellar doors. There’s plenty of time at each venue to explore, take your time with the tastings, and soak up the ambience and atmosphere. That’s exactly what I want from a food and wine tour!
The writer travelled as a guest of Andy’s Trails.
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Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Louise Reynolds made up her mind at the age of about four that she would one day travel the world — and has so far visited around 30 countries across five continents and the Pacific. A hopeless Francophile, she has a particular love for France, its language, and pretty much all things French. Louise’s favourite way to see the world is on foot and her boots have taken her walking on famous trails in Europe, South America, and New Zealand. She also has a passion for her home state of Victoria and loves exploring its diverse regions.
