Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The right frequency
Sometimes, you meet someone and no matter how hard you try, you just can't bring yourself to get past a Hello. Other times, you meet a person and you instantly connect and talk for hours non-stop. Right frequency. I guess it's the same thing with going places. Sometimes, the moment you reach a place, all you can think about is leaving. And at times, you visit somewhere and instantly, you fall in love with it. More than that, you submerge yourself into the spirit of the environment and share the same heartbeat as the trees and birds and mountains...___________________________________________________
Melbourne, 13 May, Day 2
Today, I travelled in style, and was swept away by a place I had least expected. A Rolls Royce picked me up from the hotel in the morning and we began our one-hour drive to Yarra Valley. The driver, John, was a white-bearded chap with a deep knowledge of wines and a deep love for his family (he spoke about them incessantly).
I visited the vineyards of Domain Chandon, Coldstream Hills, Dominique Portet, and De Bortoli, where I learned how champagnes and wines are produced. At each vineyard, I had a taste of at least four different types of their produce, leaving me in rather high spirits (pun intended). Then in the afternoon, I had a spa treatment at Balgownie: a vineyard-cum-hotel-cum-spa.
This photo may be worth a bit.
He's Dominique Portet,
one of the winemakers in the Yarra Valley.
He's Dominique Portet,
one of the winemakers in the Yarra Valley.
John dropped me off at Chateau Yering, where I spent the night. It is a luxurious historic house in the heart of the Yarra Valley. You can probably imagine my reluctance becos I'm not really a big fan of old colonial places full of eerie spooky stories. Some of the rooms come with gigantic paintings and I also had a tour of the basement wine cellar. Makes my hair stand on ends. Dinner was at Eleanor's, the in-house restaurant at Chateau Yering. I tried hare meat for the first time (taste a bit like beef) and had beef steak for my main course.
The wine cellar...
In a nutshell, Yarra Valley was a great experience for me. Maybe living in an urban jungle like S'pore has deprived me of the countryside which I think, one needs to indulge in every once in a while. I love the fresh cool air, green grass that stretches across the landscape, brown autumn leaves, and clear blue sky. Hmmm. Deep down, I'm a country girl - and proud of it.
