It’s off to the Tamar Valley for a wine tour today. ‘Valleybrook Wine on Wheels’ offers a number of tours of the valley – we picked the all-day tour which includes a lunch at one of the wineries. We are a small, but energetic group – 4 ladies and myself. The stops are all at smaller, boutique venues, most of whom only sell their wine from their cellar door. We won’t see this stuff in PA!
Dogs seem to be required at every winery and are a big hit with our fellow tourists. The hound at ‘Swinging Gate’ is on the cover of the awesome ‘Wine Dogs of Australia’ and he personally signs a copy of the book if purchased on site. We were able to view a very solemn ‘Nellie’ signing a book that Gemma in our group purchased. Hilarious!
Dick
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We are staying in the Auldington Hotel in Launceston. The building was originally a convent, for well over a hundred years. It was closed in the mid 2000’s when the last of the nuns disbanded, it was then turned into a small hotel. I think it is the first time I stayed in a convent!
We walk down the hill to Cucina, a bistro/café for breakfast. We decide we are going to eat light this morning so we both order the yogurt with fruit and granola and split some raisin toast. We could have split the yogurt, it was huge, but we both feel virtuous for having a healthy breakfast today.
Launceston is located in the Tamar Valley, one of Tasmania’s premier wine regions. We have booked a tour with Valleybrook Wine on Wheels to do some wine tastings in this area and they are arriving at 10 to pick us up. We share the tour with 3 ladies from north of Sydney. They had flown in this morning, dropped off luggage and got on the van. It was originally 3 girlfriends that had booked the holiday, but when one had to cancel, they asked Gemma #1’s mother (Karen) to join them (yes, both girls were named Gemma).
Stephanie, the co-owner, picked a number of boutique wineries for us to visit as well as an arranged lunch at Iron Pot Bay Vineyards. Dick and I both had the lamb pie, it was excellent. We finished at Swinging Gate, with a local cheese platter before returning to town. It was an entertaining day, since Karen, who says she doesn’t drink, but with the girls egging her on, had a nice time, plus a little nap in the van.
We never see Tasmanian wines in the states, so this was a very nice end to our time in Tasmania.
Mary