Melbourne - Day 2 (10th Jan) - Mornington Peninsula

As anyone who has met me for more than 5 seconds knows, I am a big fan of wine. For day 2 of my trip to Melbourne, Chris and Amanda took me to the Mornington Peninsula to check out some of the wineries there. I slept most of the journey down (remaining awake long enough to agree with Michael's assessment that Perth roads are planned much better than those in Melbourne), only awaking once we were almost in Mornington. One of the things I have come to appreciate about Western Australia is that once out of Perth, you can often appreciate the sights almost in solitude. Not so on the east coast (at least, not too close to Sydney or Melbourne). After completely failing to find a parking spot, we continued on to the first winery - Port Phillip Estate.

Port Phillip Estate was quite a lovely winery. The cellar door is currently located in a fairly small shed-like structure, but a big fancy building is under construction. The man who served us was very friendly, and we were able to learn quite a bit about local wine production. Chris and Amanda bought a couple of bottles, but I decided to pass, since I can't bring them into the US with me anyway. We then continued on to Paringa Estate, which has won many awards. Although the wine was fairly decent, the lady who served us was very snooty, so we continued on without purchase.

Our next stop was Red Hill Estate. The service was lovely, the wine excellent, and Chris and I each bought a bottle of wine. We also visited Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove and T'Gallant Winemakers in the hunt for a decent lunch, but didn't eat or stay long at either. However, I did try the Claudius blend at T'Gallant, which is produced by unusual and (apparently) controversial methods pioneered by some guy whose name I don't recall. The guy serving us described it as an "adventurous choice" but I figure why go to all these wineries just to taste more very similar Pinot Noir? Anyhow, the Claudius blend was ok - a little sweet and also unusual, but at least it still tasted like wine... We also visited Arthurs Seat - a lookout point with a spectacular view over the bay - but didn't stay long because we wanted to eat.

Stomachs grumbling, we ended up having a light lunch in Dromana, where I bought a copy of the newspaper and was amused to discover that in Melbourne, 25 degrees C is described as "warm". Coming off Perth's 35+ C days I thought it was pleasantly cool. Again, I can't describe the journey between Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne, as I napped some more on the way home.