Wine Country!

Last weekend in Melbourne we decided to get out of the city for a couple days just to see the countryside a little. I had no idea what the others had planned. All I knew was I was to be up early Saturday morning and be in the car. That's it! ... oh and there was something about us renting a Spanish Villa for the weekend.

So after like an hour and a half drive we ended up in this place called Port Sea.

It's like this really really nice and quiet peaceful town. The whole town has just one main shopping street and on a Saturday afternoon you can see people walking their dogs in their tracksuits. You almost want to think that everyone there lives a very long stressless relaxing life.

We had lunch near the sea where a lot of people seemed to be going for some fishing. So since we were at a coastal town, we did the most cliche thing we could think of: We had Fish & Chips at this place called The Rocks.

Everyone was being totally tourist about it. It wasn't just Ming with his big camera that he calls "The Beast".

It's everyone else too.

See I took this picture of the other side of the table and everyone was being anti-social looking at their cameras.

The food was just okay if you ask me. Just didn't think the fish & chips were anywhere close to the one I used to like a lot in London. The view though was great.

Imagine sitting with 8-9 friends having lunch and overlooking the sea.

After lunch we spent the afternoon doing something so many people have told me about... touring the wineries where all that Australian wine is made.

You basically go see huge beautiful wineries like this with all the plants that churn out the grapes they use to make wine.

If you're lucky you also get to see a little bit of the backroom operations.

This is where wine is made.

See that huge metal pot of grapes inside? They probably use machines to squeeze them all up but can you imagine those days where you would have to take off your shoes and step on them all? A lot of work, though it would be made easier if I had a pair of BIG CAT boots.

After you're done seeing how the wine is being made, you get to try out the wine at the bars there. Plus if you find something you like, you buy a bottle.

One of the wineries we stopped at was this one called Port Phillip, a very modern looking one that apparently cost like AUD 15,000,000 to build.

Now I'm no expert in wine. I like wine but I can't have a glass and roll it around and comment about its bouquet or body or... well whatever. I just know I like it and I like it. In my limited knowledge about wine though, I also know that when you go wine tasting you're not supposed to actually drink the wine they give you to sample (ironically I learned that from watching Family Guy because Peter got drunk at a wine tasting in one episode).

They have these buckets on the side where you're supposed to spit it out. Being the Asians we were though, we never let booze go to waste. So by the time I was done with our 3rd winery I was already feeling very... "happy".

At one winery we decided to sit outside in the cold to have some wine (when every other sane local there was seated inside). You know... we thought since we don't get cold weather in Malaysia much might as well savor the moment right?

Well that was right for us.. until about 5 minutes later when we realized our balls were freezing off. So we ran off before we had the chance to order.

My Dad loves wine so I bought him a couple of bottles. They were really cheap though. At least compared to the wine we get back here.

Such a fun experience... you know getting high and all indulging ourself in wine culture.

I would do it again.

In the next entries, I will blog about the Spanish Villa we stayed in :)