1 car
4 people
7 locations
10 cheeses
50 odd wines
800 chocolate drops

All in a day's work! Deanna and Matt very kindly offered to show us the delectable delights of Perth's beautiful Swan Valley on Sunday. They picked us up and straight away we started discussing a proposed route... which wineries were best, which ones offered cheese, when should the compulsory chocolate factory visit be scheduled, how many could we visit before lunch???

Luckily Matt and Deanna had done this trip before so we were in safe hands. First stop was the posh Sandleford winery, a prestigious name and a good introduction to what lay ahead. You pay your tasting fee, pick a selection you'd like to try and then let the bar staff guide you through the tasting from white to red, dry to sweet and finishing with a fortified wine. You can be as pretentious as you like about detecting such-and-such a thing on the nose or you can simply decide if you like it or not. Oh and there's no swilling and spitting involved here, if you like it you drink it, if you don't you pour it away. Simples. We were particularly impressed (!) when the lad behind the bar suggested mixing the rose with vodka and lemonade for a 'classic cocktail'. Hmmm!

Next up was the quaint little Lilac Hill winery with the neighbouring Ironbark Brewery (more on that later). This one was smaller and had a more bespoke feel to it. The guy there really knew his stuff (no cocktail suggestions here) and was enthusiastic about their produce. With good reason, as their wines very lovely!

Now a person cannot (or is that should not) pass the day one wine alone so we headed to the Olive Farm winery in search of food. They have a cafe called The Cheese Barrel which sounded mighty enticing so we sat on wine bottle crates with cushions around a table made from a wine barrel with a lazy susan top, and ordered up an two cheeseboards, one Aussie (when in erm... Rome?) and one French. Well, to be honest lunch doesn't get much better.

Having polished off the last of the Roquefort and olives we pottered across the carpark to the Olive Tree wine bar where the tasting continued. These were probably my favourite wines of the day, although the sparkling red was quite bizarre! Feeling the effects of a bit of wine we decided to investigate Whistlers chocolate factory, a new addition to the tour that was only discovered on driving past it on the way to the Olive Farm. To be honest we were a little disappointed by the lack of free samples available (can't buy if you can't try) so we headed over to Margaret River Chocolate company where there was a more bounteous offering! They have large bowls of the chocolate drops for you to help yourself to. It is fairly controlled in that you can only take what you can eat before it melts. Yummy!

Feeling in need of some lighter refreshment we headed back to the Ironbark Brewery where we got a sampler of their ales (5 of your choice from a range). We sat in the beer garden listening to a man do covers of songs enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Feeling refreshed enough to get back on the grape juice we headed to Lancaster wines where the sign promised wine and cheese tasting (yum). This one was more of a tin shed over the bar which had The Cat Empire playing behind on an ipod and only a morsel of cheese left which was a little disappointing. The scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed having the vines for each wine pointed out to us in the field a few meters away.

Feeling pleasantly drowsy we headed to the riverside via De and Matt's to get some snags (sausages) for the barbie. We ate and watched the sun set on Perth with the cockatoos and pelicans. Such a great way to spend the day and big thanks to Deanna and Matt, we had a brilliant time!!!

Anna x