After a great night's sleep in a really comfortable Queen sized bed (much better than my double), Lisa and I arose bright and early to prepare for the day's activities. Our first stop of the day was Wild Tyme cafe for an outstanding breakfast and freshly squeezed orange juice. I'd recommend this place to anyone as my egg benedict were some of the better ones I've had.
After a quick breakfast we had about 2 hours to kill before the tour began, so we enjoyed a nice walk around town, stopped at the bakery for some fresh donuts, and went to the information center to get some brochures about the area. This only managed to kill about 45 minutes, so we decided to grab the car and go explore the surrounding land. Our first stop of the morning was the hotel that Beth, Tim and myself stayed at on our visit (I couldn't quite remember which room it was, so I took pictures of both). Our second stop was the Colonial Brewing Company, located about 5 minutes North of the main strip. Margaret River is known for their fine wines, but they don't make half-bad booze either. Sitting out back on the beer garden, we enjoyed 5 different styled of beer and savored every last drop. The scenery was just as delicious as the garden was surrounded by open range farm land and gum trees. Quite a site. We enjoyed every second of the tasting tray and struck up a conversation with the only other people there, one of whom happened to be from Nevada.
About noon-thirty we rolled back to our place to meet the tour group and begin our wine tasting adventure. Our driver, Steve, picked us up outside our place and drove us out to meet up with the rest of the group at Voyager Estate. The estate was as beautiful as the wine was delicious. I hope Jared enjoys his Cab Sav. The server, James, informed us about all the reasons why Voyager had such great wine, and he wasn't wrong. The wine here was outstanding and James was one cool guy, but a total surfer persona. I wanted to tell him to "hang ten" as we left.
Feeling a bit more saucy our group rolled onto the second stop, Watershed, which impressed greatly with the views, but not so much with the wine. Tasting one after another, Lisa and I became less and less interested, so we began taking pictures of the group, our driver Steve, and Lisa's silver shoes. Still though, it was free and the scenery was pretty spectacular as vineyards surrounded the estate on 3 of 4 sides. Lisa's pictures show this (to be put up soon). Now nice and sauced up, the games began as Lisa made fangs out of pretzels and we raided the snack basket provided by Steve. Those salami, cheese, and crackers were sooo good. Our third stop for the afternoon was Pierro estate, but I'm not sure if estate is the correct word, because it looked more like a barn, which they tried to justify as "rustic." But, the inside was cozy and the company was friendly, so the overall experience was a winner.
The last winery was Moss Brothers which included barrel tasting!! Normally wine tasting involved wine strictly from the bottle. but this place actually let us walk into the wine cellar and taste the wine directly from the barrel. A novel idea and certainly delicious. Here Lisa and I tasted our favorite wine (in our price range) and picked up a couple bottles. The last two stops for the day were at the Margaret River Dairy Co. for some cheese tasting and the Margaret River Chocolate Co for some free samples of chocolate. Living in Wisconsin, the cheese tasting was a welcome surprise, but a disappointing result. I believe one of the flavors was literally Hobbit's feet. The Chocolate Co was much better, and James B. would agree (we got his present here).
Around 5:30 the tour wrapped up and dropped us off back at our place. Feeling a little tipsy and not too hungry, we immediately passed out with the radio playing. Waking up a few hours later and a bit hung over, we headed off to The Spaghetti Bowl (Beth, Tim and I also ate here), for some great pasta, great company, and a lot of water.
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