Macedon Ranges Wine Tours

PLEASE READ THIS IN-DEPTH REVIEW BECAUSE THE EXPERIENCE EXCEEDED ALL EXISTING REVIEWS.

My partner and I were celebrating our 4 year anniversary and went on the Mornington (DAY 1) and Macedon (DAY 2) tours on 2 consecutive days with Trevor (Mornington) and John (Macedon) where we were the only 2 passengers on both the tours. We felt like we have won the lottery by taking a chance with Wine Tours Victoria (WTV).

Below are the reasons in segments for areas of interest where i try to be as specific to Macedon’s tour and John (our tour guide) as possible:

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:

My partner and I HIGHLY recommend this tour with THIS tour company. We were even recommended to this specific company by another HIGHLY renowned wine tour company (one of the pioneers of wine tours) that we have been with previously where we had the an incredibly high quality experience. They were booked out, however, they mentioned that WTV is the ONLY other wine tour company that they will recommend as no other is on par. After going with WTV we were so grateful for the recommendation as our experience exceeded ALL expectations from EVERYONES’ PAST reviews. Both Trevor and John have DECADES of wine experience which enriched our wine tour experience TEN FOLDS with the in depth knowledge provided.

MACEDON TOUR EXPERIENCE WITH JOHN:

We tasted at 2 different wineries, 1 beer brewery (due to unforeseen circumstances of the last winery) and had lunch with a glass of wine. Despite the website mentioning 4-5 wineries, and us only having 3 tastings as well as other people from their reviews, the 2 wineries we went to were EQUIVALENT TO 4-5 WINE TASTINGS ALONE. The first winery had about 18 TASTINGS. YES, EIGHTEEN, give or take, when normal tastings usually consists of 5-6 tastings. We even had the PRIVILEGE of tasting their RARE and LIMITED wine at the end! The second winery had about 10 TASTINGS, give or take. JUST from these two wineries alone, we had about 28 tastings which was equivalent to about 5-6 standard winery tastings. This is EXCLUDING the last wine tasting that had to be cancelled and replaced with a beer tasting which was so refreshing after all the wine AND THIS IS ALSO EXCLUDING the other potential wine tastings to meet the “4-5” wineries mentioned in the description (subject to availability) to which, the bare minimum of experiencing 2 wineries as my partner and i did, is already equivalent to the upper end of 4-5 wine tastings! Overall, THIS WAS SUCH A UNIQUE AND MIND BLOWING SURPRISE AND IT IS WHAT PEOPLE DON’T MENTION. All the wines were so different and unique despite having a lot (WELL ABOVE AVERAGE) from a particular winery. The advantage from this unique experience is that we are able to EXTENSIVELY and COHESIVELY taste the wines of the particularly winery and compare their different wines to one another very closely which allowed us to get to know the vineyard extremely intimately.

JOHN AND THE WINE MAKERS:

John and all the wine makers were so welcoming and we had such an intimate experience that really focused on US as we were a small tour group (me, my partner and John). John had such a great sense of humor and friendliness to him which made it genuinely feel like we all naturally became friends during the tour. The atmosphere of the tour was so fun and relaxing which made it feel like a holiday rather than a formal and serious event. This is also particularly because John have a VERY LONG relationship with all the wine makers so everything felt natural, exclusive and fun. John himself made the Macedon wine tour so memorable and he even had AMAZING recommendations for the food and wine pairing when we went for lunch which was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. BEST CALAMARI APPETIZER I’VE EVER HAD and the main course i ordered was AMAZING TOO. He has such deep knowledge when it comes to wine (including Trevor if you have him for the Macedon or any tour) and they both helped to deepen our understanding of the wine making and tasting process from the MOST basics to the MOST complex!

HOSPITALITY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE: (I will speak about this area while referring to WTV as a whole as you may get Trevor or John which they both share and EXUDE the VERY RARE and LOST quality of hospitality and customer service which reflects EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH and UNIQUE QUALITY of the WTV wine tasting experience and the company as a whole).

WTV (particularly the people within it being Trevor and John) has an extremely rare quality that makes their hospitality and customer service one of a kind which arguably, you only see in the older generation. My partner and I were late by 30 minutes due to extreme unforeseen circumstances, yet Trevor was extremely patient, understanding, ensured our welfare and welcomed us with the biggest smile and open arms. He even closed off an entire lane with his emergency lights on just for us for 30 minutes! Additionally and EXTREMELY ADMIRABLY, with the tour just being us 2 (for BOTH tours), WTV actually loses money (TWICE), however, they STILL ENTHUSIASTICALLY proceed with the tour despite it being a LONG journey out of their days while LOSING money. They do this purely and altruistically based on the principle of being EMPATHETIC to their customers and not wanting to cause any inconveniences to them by cancelling (MANY PLACES CANCEL IF THEY DON’T MAKE MONEY). They want to GIVE as MUCH AS THEY CAN to US despite ANY backlash they may endure because they believe that the BEST type of advertisement is in the EXPERIENCE in of itself and the recommendations by word of mouth. BOTH of the Mornington and Macedon tour experience were a TESTAMENT to this. EVERYTHING WAS CATERED TO US TO ENSURE OUR HIGHEST-QUALITY EXPERIENCE. As i mentioned, this is an extremely inspiring, heart-felt and LOST old school ethic of doing business and hospitality which touched me and my partner’s heart and is why this section is the longest. Unfortunately i placed this section last as i know potential customers may want to know about the wine experience first. Lastly to give this section credibility, i know the financial losses due to Trevor and I speaking about the financial aspect of wine tours from me being interested in it and asking, which Trevor is the OWNER of WTV and happily shared with my partner and i. If we didn’t speak about it, my partner and i would have just assumed that WTV was making good profit from the tour due to Trevor’s and John’s incredibly positive and welcoming attitudes. Upon learning this financial aspect, we realised why so many (probably all) wine tours cancel if they don’t have more than 2 guests and the fact that the tour guides of WTV go on such a journey to make us happy at THEIR OWN EXPENSE, highlights the importance that they place on the quality of hospitality and customer service to their guests.

Thank you so much for making this such a memorable 4 year anniversary for my partner and I John and Trevor!

Last Sunday the 14th March my husband and I did the Macedon wine tour for our 25th wedding anniversary .We had a awesome time at the 4 wineries the scenery and the food was amazing wineries were great would like to thank Trevor our tour guide for a great tour so full of knowledge loved his stories had a good laugh and came home with 17 bottles of wine a great day all round would definitely do it again .

Amazing day of wine tour with Melissa, our guide. We enjoyed a very personalised experience with loads of warm hospitality. Melissa made us feel like we were travelling with close friends rather than guide & customers. The wineries we visited in the Macedon Ranges were superb! Especially Granite Hill – our last stop where we had a very good chat with Llew, the very knowledgeable wine maker and got to admire an amazing sunset over the vineyard too! Beautiful wines all the way through – just wished we could buy more bottles but we were constrainted by weight limitations for our luggage. Lunch was tasty & SUBSTANTIAL! Fruit cake for the picnic baked by Trevor was also delish! And Trevor was very prompt in responding to emails when we made our booking – so that’s awesome!

Family and I had a wonderful time visiting wineries in the beautiful Macedon ranges outside of Melbourne. Our driver and tour guide Helena was superb and a fountain of information.

Had a morning stop at the very pretty Hanging Rock Park where we had great coffee and cake picnic style. Stopped mid-day for a wonderful lunch and had the great fortune to meet the owner of Wine Tours Victoria Trevor who was also guiding another tour and having lunch with them also. Told Trevor my only regret was not having enough vacation time left in Melbourne to do another regional wine tour with him. Trevor your company is great. We were all treated like family members rather than mere numbers. Highly recommend this company.

We booked a wine tour of the Macedon Ranges. We chose this area because we wanted a laid back, leisurely tasting experience. We got exactly that. Trevor picked us up right on time at our hotel in downtown Melbourne. It was very nice in that it was just our group (3 people) in the van. We stopped in the shadow of Hanging Rock for a quick coffee break.

We were amazed and delighted when Trevor pulled out the tablecloth, French press and homemade fruit cake from the back of the van. My daughter was delighted that she finally saw a kangaroo. We then visited a total of 3 wineries: Cope Williams, Hanging Rock, and Granite Hills. All had exceptional wines. Trevor is extremely knowledgeable about wine and the history of the area. The scenery is spectacular so the drives between wineries went by very quickly. Trevor arranged for a pub lunch for us which was delicious. All in all it was a fantastic day and well worth it.

Best 2 wine tours I have experienced in Victoria!!. Visited the Bellarine Peninsula & Macedon Ranges. Food and wine were excellent and our drivers, Trevor and John were a wealth of local knowledge and the scenery was just stunning. Be sure to take your camera and get ready for an amazing day out. Oh, and the home made goodies for morning tea are just divine. Thanks guys for a wonderful experience. Love the benefits of small tour groups.

We visited some wonderful wineries, tucked away in the Macedon Ranges. Out guide was passionate and experienced, he shared stories about the places we visited and made us all very comfortable..

The wine and food was if high quality and we thoroughly enjoyed our day out. The bus pick up drop off service was extremely handy allowing our whole group to participate in the day.