A really good day today, travelling down to the Swan River a place of many treats and expectations.
The journey begins at the tourist information centre in the town of Guildford . Here you collect you map and information on which of the numerous places are open today and then set off.
All along the route are wineries, cafes, places to stay and lots of places to sample a variety of different goodies.
Our first stop was the Yahava Koffeeworks where having chatted to the barista we chose three coffees to try. He talked to us about the intensity and flavour of each of our choices before making each batch fresh. Each sample increased in intensity finishing with one called 'black gold' which would make a really good macchiato!
On a real coffee high we set off for the next stop, two different treats side by side. Firstly the Providore/Coward & Black, where we were able to sample lovely selections of sauces, pickles and jams - fanatics and some unbelievably scrummy chocolate sauces with hints of added flavours. Really gorgeous.
Right next door was the Margaret River Chocolate Company; fantastic bars, boxes, jars - in fact aloft any container suitable for holding chocolate, full of fantastic goodies. We sampled various types of chocie and then made our choice to take away . Of course it had to be the gorgeous dark chocolate ginger and then after a sample some red gum honey comb. Really looking forward to those.
Suitably sugar hyped we moved on; hadn't tried any wine yet so just across the way was the Lancaster winery, well you have to don't you!!
We were welcomed by the lovely staff and soon our tasting began; sparkling wine, t
wo really fresh whites, a scrumptious summery rose and the two quite nice reds. Three dessert wines, one white two gorgeous reds both of which smelt and tasted like Christmas. Wow it's a good job that you only get about a mouth full otherwise.....
A lovely morning could only be followed by a very agreeable lunch, so that was our next stop. When we were here last Mikey and I found a really nice lunch at the Edgecomb Brothers Winery so we hoped to find it again. We did and it was just as picturesque as last time and the food was just as good. Great!! A lovely meal, a bottle of wine and lovely.
Two more stops this afternoon, Mondo Nougat and Morish Nuts share a building so this tasting was easy to accomplish. Next stop Whistler's Chocolate Co had great displays of chocolate modelling and some nice stuff to taste too. Such a chocie day!
Our last stop was an unusual one, the Great Northern Distillary where a number