Swan Valley - Indulgence pur... well, almost

Dear beloved food, wine and beer lovers,
On Sunday I grabbed the Saab in the morning to finally set off to the Swan Valley (actually I already wanted to go on Friday but then I had to draw up a Plan B with the Crown Casino and the City of Perth instead).

After a short stop to the Visitor Information Center in Guildford I set off to the award-winning Swan Valley Food and Wine Trail up West Swan Road.
At around 10:15am (what a good time!) I stopped at one of the biggest wineries in the area: Sandalford Winery. I walked along the grape vines as I did in Barossa Valley and Yarra Valley.

It is clearly autumn here now and it looked so nice with the red-turning leaves. At that early hour there were already a few people heading towards the cellar door. As I was driving I didn't go inside and didn't asked for tastings. I think they do FREE tastings. Some wineries charge a small fee (5 or 10 Aussie dollars) for the tastings. If I had someone with me I would loved to hear their opinion about Sandalford wine.

Instead I drove a few km further North and stopped at the Margret River Chocolate Company. I have been to the original shop in Margret River. Here are only SOME of the awards they won. And they have FREE chocolate tastings!

This was my view on the terrace while I waited for my coffee. Number 82, does that say something about my day today?

I had a 2-for-1 voucher and got me two hand-made truffles. To the left the award-winning Chili Cha Cha and to the right the Blueberry Blend. They were very nice!

Well, I also had two drinks as a result of that voucher. A Flat White and a traditional Macchiato. Again I wished I had some company with me on this day but all my friends in Perth at the moment are students and they have of course to prepare themselves for their final exams. Good luck to you guys!

After a short look through the Viewing Window in the shop how they make Liscious Liquorice at 11am I set off for the next shop on my itinerary.

It is in fact just opposite the chocolaterie but you have to cross the busy road and go down the alley. I went to the second winery that I chose to visit: Lancaster Wines. I was surprised to still see some grapes hanging on the vines.

Lancaster Wines has won some major wine award of the Swan Valley which means quite a bit as there are more than 40 wineries. The wines are exclusively sold at their tasting shed and nowhere else. I again just had a look and didn't taste anything for the sake of driving. They also serve FREE cheese with their FREE tasting!

My next stop was a little bit more cultural. I went inside the Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery to have a look at art, bushtucker, jewellery and pottery. Taking pictures inside the building is unfortunately not allowed.

You can try almost all of their bushtucker supplies like spices, oil, sauces, dips, syrups and many other things, again for FREE. I bought some grounded Wattleseed as I heard a lot about these trees on a free Botanic Garden tour in Adelaide and it fascinated me.

Next to the gallery is a small fenced area with Emus. I truly didn't expect to see them out in the Swan Valley.

Just a 100 meter walk from the gallery is one of four breweries of the Swan Valley: Mash Brewery. When I arrived their at 12pm it was nearly empty but when I told them that I didn't have a reservation the woman said to me they are booked out and they will all come at about now. Then she laughed and I thought it was a joke. IT WAS NOT!

I had to sit in front of the bar and not in the main seating area which is also nice especially with these stylish wooden tables. I chose this brewery as I had a 25 % off voucher. Through this I literally got my beer for FREE :-)

I ordered a tiny beer (200 ml) of Mash Brewery's "Freo Doctor". Freo is the abbreviation for Fremantle and the Freo Doctor is a constant afternoon breeze which comes in literally every day from the ocean and cools down the city.

Chicken Parma might not sound like a typical Australian dish but according to this CNN list (no. 18) it is. That's the real reason I ordered a Chicken Schnitzel topped with tomato sauce and melted cheese (not because it sounded like THE dish I always wanted to try...). Of course on chips because Australians are basically British and would probably eat chips with everything.

After that massive meal which I actually quite liked I left at 1pm further North and then visited my next cultural stop: All Saints Church. There I was surprised to see a Lama farm.

This is the reason why this church is so important to the region and worth that little detour to take in some true WA history.

Not the most spectacular church, so within 10 minutes I went inside and around the church.

I drove further North on West Swan Road and past an ice-cream shop. I saw the sign for FREE ice-cream tasting too late to stop :-( I turned right at the traffic lights onto the Great Northern Highway and stopped at the Cheese Barrel.

Yepp, lots of cheese, mainly from Europe (who is surprised about that really?) but also America and a few Australian cheeses. Actually just four Australian cheeses, one from Tasmania and three from Victoria. As I already tried Tasmanian cheese in Tasmania I decided to try one of the Victorian cheeses (although I tried Victorian cheese on the Great Ocean Road).

The Cheese Barrel doesn't produce their own cheese, so they don't offer free tastings. Instead you can have cheese platters of the menu for lunch or to share with others or you can create your own cheese plate. After the massive meal I decided to only try the blue cheese from Victoria together with some olives. This by the way is a bottle of water, not wine :-(

Then I walked next door to the Olive Farm Wines tasting room which I thought looked really great. But again instead of tasting some wines (as I was driving...alone...) I just had a look around.

But I did try all of these olive oils. None of them convinced me...

At 2pm I arrived at the House of Honey. I went through all of the 10 or 12 FREE tastings... twice! I had a good look around but decided against a cake or an ice-cream because I was already feeling full and I had more tastings planned for the day. OH YES!

There is also a small bee display in the shop. I tried to find the Queen Bee but couldn't find her.

Look at all these delicious cakes! Oh dear...

Just about another km or so further South is the Morish Nuts shop. I went through almost all of the FREE nut tastings before I decided to buy a caramel coated mix of macademias, almonds and cashews.

Macademias are a speciality of Australia and you get them in all sorts of varieties.

Right next door is the Mondo Nougat shop with lots of more delicious looking cakes and sweets. Oh it was so tempting!

Here is only a small part of the nougat range.

And here the premium range of the nougats.

This time the showroom was actually lit. But nobody was inside. In the other shops there were also viewing windows but all of them were dark except in the Margret River Chocolate Company. That is the reason why I wanted to go during the week, also because there are less people in the shops and on the road.

This is my view from my table in the shop waiting for my cappuccino. Hmm, 18? If it had been 28 it would have been too funny.

I again had a 2-for-1 voucher and got two premium nougat bars for the price of one. But I only ordered one cappuccino for me. I already felt like I wouldn't sleep for the rest of my life ever again and didn't go for my FREE second coffee. Now you wish you had come with me on this tour, right? All this FREE stuff and lots of tastings.

After this second coffein intake I was ready for another more cultural stop at this rusty shed for the Illusionary Art Exhibition.

It wasn't really big inside and also some people were in the process of recording for a documentary. I had a quick look around, took some pictures and went out again after 5 minutes because I didn't wanted to end up in the documentary.

It was 3:30pm when I actually finished all the points of my self-made itinerary for the day. So I had a look on the Swan Valley map and decided to drive to the Whistler's Chocolate Company.

What I liked most there was this chocolate aquarium! How cool is that? On the other hand they have to have something special as they did not have any free tastings but a comfy looking lounge and a big outside area with a playground and everything.

Just another 500m away is one of two distilleries of the valley: the Great Northern Distillery. Well, actually it is only a tasting room (not licensed as a bar) and not a real distillery.

I walked inside and I was really tempted to have one tasting of the Kimberly rum Canefire (for 4 AUD, not for free). But as I already had a beer and didn't wanted to risk anything I didn't try... Ohhh, I was really tempted!

At 4pm I sat in the car on the carpark and was thinking for 15 minutes what else to do as I had come almost to the end of the 42km-loop of the Swan Valley Food and Wine Trail.
I had chocolate, different coffees, beer, Chicken Parma, lots of bushtucker, cheese, olives, olive oil, honey, nuts and nougat. If that doesn't sound like a fulfilled day, then I don't know what does! If I hadn't been driving I could have also had lots of wine and a rum... Including the fuel and all my purcheses I spent less then what I would have paid for a guided tour (without purchases)!!!
But I really wished I had some company with me on this day :-( At 4:30pm I was stuffed and a bit tired. So I decided this was the end of my Swan Valley trip.
But not the end of the day! Await my next blog post: the Perth city skyline at night!
Yours Swan-Valley-Indulgence-Tour-making Stefanie