A Brazilian Introduction to the Yarra Valley: Jose and Claudia’s Day

Jose and Claudia arrived in the Yarra Valley with a fortnight of comparison behind them in the Southern Hemisphere, arriving from New Zealand. Milford Sound, Central Otago — so they know what a wine region is meant to taste like. The Yarra Valley held its own, and both mentioned the same thing about Australia and New Zealand alike: an orderly feel to how each place runs, from the roads to the towns.

They’d started the visit the day before with a city walking tour, then based themselves at a hotel on the Yarra River for the Melbourne leg of the trip. The wine day began at Chandon, where a guided tasting with Jacob set the tone — sparkling and cool-climate styles that aren’t the styles Jose and Claudia usually drink at home. This is the beauty of a wine tour, trying different wines. Jose favours Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon; Claudia is a Chardonnay drinker but from warmer climates.

From Chandon, the day moved to Tokar Estate, an Australian family-owned winery, for a tasting built around its signature Tempranillo and a chef’s table lunch — the kind of pace that gives a two-glass tasting time to become a conversation about the vintage instead of a formality before the next stop. The day closed at St Hubert’s with a cheese board featuring Long Paddock, made locally in Castlemaine, and a final wine flight, this time St Huberts premium where a cool climate Reserve Cab Sav was the favourite -the sort of ending that works because nothing after it is rushed.

Between vintages and courses, the conversation ran the other way too — coffee and beer production back home, the scale of Brazilian agriculture, and São Paulo’s roughly 20 million residents living at a density Melbourne doesn’t come close to. Car manufacturing came up as well, including the Chinese hybrid models now common on Brazilian roads. Jose and Claudia are seasoned travellers, having already covered China and seven of the largest cities in the United States, and it showed in how readily they compared notes.

By the next morning they were on the road, Great Ocean Road-bound for the Twelve Apostles. Jose has driven in South Africa before, so the unfamiliar side of the road didn’t slow them down — Torquay marked the start of the coastal run, with Bells Beach and Kennett River flagged as stops worth the detour. Sydney follows in a few days. For a couple who’d just come from Milford Sound, the fact that the Yarra River hotel and a day among three producers made the shortlist of trip highlights says something about how the day landed.