Melbourne to Adelaide: the ultimate Australian road trip for wine lovers

On the long drive from Melbourne to Adelaide you’re spoilt for choice for food, wine and beer, says Cathy Adams
Robert Blackburn/Visit Victoria
Cathy Adams21 August 2018

The words “boozy” and “road trip” don’t often go together. But we’re in Australia, where the distances are huge and the vineyards and breweries plentiful. Helpfully, the coffee is also world-class, which is good news for the hangover. Oh, and my husband is driving. I’m just doing the heavy drinking.

It’s 451 miles between Melbourne and Adelaide on Australia’s south-east coast. That distance is bracketed by two of Australia’s most famous winelands: Yarra Valley, outside Melbourne, and Adelaide’s McLaren Vale. And between them, wineries, gastropubs and breweries abound (the states of Victoria and South Australia count some of Australia’s most-loved brews within their borders); plus there’s the Great Ocean Road, Imax-wide landscapes and thousands of kangaroos, emus and wombats. Have I said that I’m not driving?

Yarra Valley

Melbourne’s Yarra Valley — after a jetlag-soothing coffee from Melbourne’s Duke’s Coffee Roasters — was my starting point. Most Yarra visitors make a beeline for glittering LVMH-owned vineyard Chandon, which celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year. Drinking a delicate glass of sparkling, sitting on the grass overlooking rolling vines, is all very well but it’s full of tour buses. Try the lower-profile TarraWarra (known for its pinot noir, Museum of Art and Alice in Wonderland-esque cellar door) and boutique Yarra Yering (with a homely cellar door) instead.

(Yarra Yering)

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road begins at Torquay, south-west of Melbourne. Taking the 40-minute Sorrento-Queenscliff Searoad ferry rather than driving through the city suburbs means we skim the Mornington Peninsula wine valley — plus it flings us right across the bay to the start of arguably the world’s most spectacular road.

Beginning the 243-kilometre route we hug the coast past Bells Beach, with surf motels and choppy waves, through the gorse-covered Great Otway National Park until we reach Lorne, a genteel seaside town with big meat pies.

We tuck in: I’m lining my stomach for Forrest Brewery, a pub in the cooler mountain air north of Lorne that brews four beers on site. A pint of hoppy pale ale later and we’re off to Great Ocean Road Brewhouse in Apollo Bay, a brewpub with more than 100 craft beers as well as chicken parmigiana, a Melbourne speciality.

Forest Brewing Company
Robert Blackburn/Visit Victoria

Then it’s past the 12 Apostles. With the Southern Ocean whipping foam around the limestone stacks, they’re majestic. And towards the end of the Great Ocean Road is the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, which some of Australia’s most iconic wildlife call home, including emus, koalas, kangaroos and echidnas.

Robe

Across state lines onto South Australia’s Limestone Coast, it gets hotter, drier and more orange. Kangaroo warnings come every few miles and dusty lorries occasionally chunter past.

I’m desperate for a drink when we pull into Robe, a cutesy town that’s fast gaining a profile as a foodie destination. That’s because the breweries, cafés and vineyards are all within spitting distance: Robe Town Brewery, which uses locally grown barley and foraged ingredients; in-town gastropub Adventurous Spoon that does huge Aussie breakfasts and has a mouthwatering array of gins; and Karatta Wines, with a tasting room right on Robe’s main street.

McLaren Vale

Our reward for our five-day spin is lunch on the d’Arenberg terrace. The family-run winery, run by fourth-generation Chester Osborn, has been kicked up a gear with the 2017 opening of the d’Arenberg Cube, a five-level geometric glass funhouse designed to “entice and excite” the senses. We’re plunged into a black circle of old videotapes, designed to feel like a fermentation chamber. Dismembered animal heads stick out of the wall on one level. A 270-degree screen displays rotating shapes and sounds. It’s revolutionary.

For a more low-key experience, next door is former Australian winemaker of the year SC Pannell and boutique Alpha Box & Dice, with a cellar door stuffed with Miss Havisham-esque trinkets and antiques.

In five days we’ve covered seven vineyards, three breweries, a couple of gastropubs and countless flat whites for the hangover. We’ve smashed Australia’s’s most eye-popping road trip… but make sure someone else is at the wheel.

Details: Australia

Qantas (qantas.com) flies to Melbourne and Adelaide from £842 return. The Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne has doubles from £155, room only. The Playford Adelaide – MGallery by Sofitel ​has doubles from around £96, room only.

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