“The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.”
― Benjamin Franklin, circa 1700s
I recently booked GG and I, along with our two furry sidekicks, Chablis and Brillat on a wine tour. Grape Escapes South West Tours offer a Pawesome Tour and as the name suggests it is a wine tour where you can take along your dogs! How good is that? Perfect for the pet obsessed. The tour takes you to the dog friendly wineries in the region and it is a wonderful day out.
Love your Pooch? Love wine also? What about great food? Our ‘Pawesome Tour’ is a private charter for you & your beloved pup. We know all the dog friendly hangouts from wineries & cafe’s to breweries & beaches. We have a variety of lunch options including a picnic lunch starting from $15 per person or you can choose a venue of your choice. Let us take you & your furry friend out for an adventure! Priced from $375* for 3 people up to 5 hours. Larger vehicle up to 7 people from $490*
The tour runs from 11am til 4.30ish and it’s a fun few hours, plus you are picked up and safely returned to your accommodation (we stayed at this dog friendly airbnb house in Quindalup). Our friendly guide Geri and her husband Paul, launched these tours a year ago (and you can read their beautiful story here), pursuing their shared passion for wine and their love for their dogs! Clearly they are people after my own heart and they’ve proven a real hit because let’s face it, if there’s one thing I know is that as a dog fan you want to spend all the time you can with your pups, so of course you want to take them on a wine tour! I’m sure it’s been high on Chablis and Brillat’s wishlists too 😉
Throughout the course of the day we visited six beautiful wineries… some which were first time visits for us and others which were delightful to return to.
- Windance Estate – Great place to start and it had been a long time since we called past years before and the new cellar door is beautiful. I loved their Rosé and met their beautiful dalmatian
- Stormflower Vineyard – A lovely smaller winery, where the dogs were free to wander about on the lawn, while we enjoyed trying their chardonnay
- Heydon Estate – Am a long time fan of Mary and her winery and revisiting their wines is a always a delight. A small, but stunning list and my heart belongs to The Willow.
- Woody Nook Wines – Our lunch stop! Such a welcoming and quaint spot! Very dog friendly (the table next door even offered our pups some of their lunch). Nice tempranillo too!
- Credaro Wines – By the time we got here, our pups were fading, had been a long day of excitement for them, but it meant we got to enjoy their range in peace in quiet, and to try out a Fragola!
- Cape Naturaliste Vineyard – Our last stop and I’m so grateful to the lovely team here for being so accommodating with our little yappers. I think they were lucky to still make it to the polaroid hall of fame. Great wines too!
I managed to fall in love with a Chardonnay at every one of these stops, along with some cracking reds and slowly but surely my collection of purchases started to fill the boot.
We enjoyed a delicious platter lunch at The Nookery Café at Woody Nook, a winery I’d not visited before. It is a really cute spot and the staff are dog lovers so you feel very welcomed when you arrive with your furry friends. We enjoyed a glass of their tempranillo outside under the shady pergola. It was a very good feed, with everything from pork belly to squid, fresh bread and dips, croquettes, prawns, pate, salad and fruit, something for everyone! We managed to put a very respectable dent in it.
The dogs thought the tour was a massive adventure and given all the excitement of meeting new people at each winery they would often take the opportunity for a little shut eye on the drives between wineries.
As we got towards the end of the day they even opted for a sleep while we enjoyed our tastings. Geri took this photo and it is one of my favourites.
It really was a great day out and a perfect way to explore the region. The wineries chosen were all excellent, a good range from bigger to more boutique producers. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, definitely weren’t going to be leaving hungry with that generous platter, and throughout the day Geri kept us well entertained. I think that was my favourite part really, an outstanding tour guide. It felt more like we were driving around with someone we’d known for years. Comfy car, great playlists and we chatted the day away as we went from stop to stop. Thanks for showing us such a good time Geri!
So when you are next heading down south for a weekend, then why not take your dogs along to enjoy the fun! Check out more about the Grape Escape South West Tours here.
perthmunchkin 
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