A day in the Yarra Valley near Melbourne

Written by Tim Blight

Writer, traveller, amateur photographer, teacher. Based in Melbourne and Lahore.

October 4, 2015

The Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley is just one hour’s drive from the centre of Melbourne, but it’s a world away from the daily grind. While it’s famous for its multitude of wineries, there are plenty of things to entertain the non-drinker as well.

Yarra Valley

We stopped first at the Yarra Valley Dairy, where the ‘House Cow’ and ‘Saffy Cow’ (marinated in saffron-infused olive oil) cheeses come highly recommended!!

Yarra Valley Dairy

Yarra Valley Dairy

 

Yarra Valley Dairy

Yarra Valley Dairy

After that we headed to the Innocent Bystander, a restaurant and wine bar, for lunch. While the highlight for many is the wine tasting, I’ll leave that to the experts and talk about the food. A cheese board to start, followed by crispy ocean trout with puttanesca sauce, woodfire pizza and twice cooked duck, along with a range of cool drinks and cakes.

Innocent Bystander cheese board

Innocent Bystander cheese board

Innocent Bystander twice cooked duck

Innocent Bystander twice cooked duck

Innocent Bystander buffalo mozzarella pizza

Innocent Bystander buffalo mozzarella pizza

Innocent Bystander crispy skin ocean trout

Innocent Bystander crispy skin ocean trout

LOVE this!

LOVE this!

We tried to get into the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery, but the lines for that were ridiculous enough to have us on our way back to the big smoke. Instead we finished up with a drive around some of the pretty wineries for which the area is known, clicking pictures and being shamelessly touristy.

Yarra Valley

For more from the Yarra Valley, see the latest UrbanDuniya video here!

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6 Comments

  1. Andrew

    ’tis a fine place on Earth. with lots of cheese!

    Reply
    • Tim Blight

      LOTSSSSS of cheese! Makes me happy 😀

      Reply
  2. Anna @ shenANNAgans

    Lovely post friend. Cheese, wine AND beautiful countryside…. Looks heavenly.

    Your words actually prompted me to contact an old friend who is obsessed with Innocent Bystander, we are catching up soon to chat about all the fun times we had drinking their wines.

    How’s about that cow? And twice cooked duck….. YARM!

    Reply
    • Tim Blight

      You MUST come here – you would LOVE it!! Thanks for reading 🙂

      Reply
  3. Agness

    Oh Tim, it seems like a perfect getaway place for families and couples!

    Reply
    • Tim Blight

      Got it in one!! Hope you can go there one day 🙂

      Reply

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