Wine pass for Victoria

Wine lovers heading for Melbourne will be interested in the new Cellar Door Pass Victoria, which combines more than 50 cellar doors and winery restaurants into a single flexible-itinerary package.

The Cellar Door Pass has been developed by Smartvisit Solutions with support from Tourism Victoria and retails at AUD 99 -- with a total value of more than AUD 300.

Cardholders get a huge amount of value from the new Cellar Door Pass, including up to AUD 150 worth of premium wines (six bottles of up to AUD 25 in value), premium wine tastings, winery tours and other special offers for one or two people.

A Cellar Door directory with maps and an audio CD that provides an overview of the wine regions and commentary from winemakers on grape varieties is included in the price.

Among the leading Victorian wine regions included in the programme’s first year are the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Macedon Ranges, the Pyrenees, the Grampians, Bendigo, the Goulburn Valley and Rutherglen.

International visitors can buy the pass at the Best of Victoria desk at Federation Square Visitor Information Centre in Melbourne.

* While in the Mornington Peninsula, visitors can also take in a winery tour with a difference - travelling in a 1930s stretch-Chevrolet. The fully restored classic car which has been modified and stretched, seats six passengers in the back, is decked out with plush red velvet and boasts two bars for refreshments enroute.

The four-hour tour starts from a Mornington Peninsula pick up point and takes in a number of boutique and more established wineries. Lunch is not included, however depending upon your budget, there are several options Bogarts can suggest.

Tours also stop in at Mornington Peninsula Chocolates by arrangement. The cost is AUD 550 for four hours.

A tale of two beers

Everybody has their own favourite beer, and in Tasmania, you're either for Cascade or James Boag's. The two breweries draw a horizontal line through the centre of Tasmania and there is something of a Mason-Dixon divide of beer lovers.

In the North, drinkers swear their allegiance to Launceston's James Boag's. Its brewery is surrounded by classic Georgian architecture in the heart of Australia's third oldest city.

Meanwhile, the southerners are staunch advocates of Cascade, which comes from a brewery nestled in the shadow of Mount Wellington on the outskirts of Hobart, which incidentally is Australia's second oldest city after Sydney.

The pubs in the north have Boag's on tap, while their southern counterparts go for Cascade.

The fierce loyalty of each side for its own preference of liquid lunch dates back to the nineteenth century.

With its imposing stone facade, Cascade is Australia's oldest surviving brewery as well as the nation's oldest manufacturing enterprise.

The Cascade story began with Englishman Peter Degraves, who came to what was then known as Van Dieman's Land to take part in numerous ventures before eventually starting up the brewery in 1824.

Only two years later he was thrown into prison for apparently not paying his debts back in England. But when Degraves later emerged from his jail cell, it didn't take long for him to become one of the colony's wealthiest and most prominent citizens, on the back of the success of the brewery and other businesses.

By the 1850s, Cascade was the colony's most popular beer amid fierce competition from Tassie's 47 other breweries.

Degraves died in 1852 and while his four sons continued to run the brewery, the family name's association with Cascade eventually ceased when they passed away without heirs. It is now in the hands of the Fosters Group.

Ninety-minute walk-arounds are conducted by guides several times a day, and the tour costs AUD 18. It includes the chance to see the beer being brewed, and after a tour of the beautiful Woodstock Gardens, comes a half hour of beer tasting – all included in the tour price.

Meanwhile, Cascade's main rival also has a long history of supplying beer drinkers from Tasmania and the mainland. People from the state's north still ask for a "Jimmy" when ordering a beer at the bar.

So, who was James Boag?

He arrived in Tasmania from Scotland with his wife in 1853 and worked for several breweries in the north of the island. Then in 1881 he joined forces with his son, also called James, to take control of the Esk Brewery situated on the banks of the Esk River, forming James Boag and Son.

Tours of Boags include a full circuit of the brewery from the brew house to the packaging line, along with an insight into the brewing process and the family’s fascinating history.