“You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese” - Anthony Bourdain

DAY THREE

Today was about food. It was a day of grazing, hopping from one gourmet delight to the next.

Starting with breakfast at the very quaint "Margaret River Bakery". We started the day well with homemade Granola, Eggs Benedict, orange juices and a couple of coffees. While sipping on our coffees we studied the map... circling the "must go" places. We mapped our route and we were off...

First stop... Cheese!

Upon recommendation we visited Hay Shed Hill in search of good cheese... and we hit the jackpot!!

After the obligatory sampling... I dove head first into a three cheese platter with the works.. condiments, wine and fruit!! I can safely say, this was the most stunning cheese platter both visually and on the palate. I chose three of my favourites..

1. Valdeon - a spanish blue wrapped in vine leaves

2. Comte - a mild gouda, perfect to offset the strength of the Valdeon

3. D'affinois - a decadent cheese, creamy and with a fantastic OOOZE factor!

The two syrups you see are the two Hay Shed Hill dessert wines reduced down to act as the contrast to the salty cheeses AH-MAZING! A clever use of dessert wines and cheese - will be trying this at home.

Next stop was Gabriel Chocolates. This was a chocoholic's heaven! Adopting the bean to bar concept some of the best quality chocolate was being created here. After tasting some chocolate, we decided to cool off with some ice cream.

Situated right next to House of Cards, it would seem rude NOT to try some wine. We skipped the whites and went straight for the reds... some really nice drops. Some rich berry notes and spices from this single vineyard wine producer.

Earlier in the day we had booked at private tasting at Moss Wood. We had a quick stop at Evans & Tate and Pukara Estate before heading to our tasting. We explored the winery from vine to barrel to bottle. We tasted wine at a number of stages and levels of maturity. It was a real eye opener to see what the barreling and aging process does to the wine. A real highlight was the cellar, we saw wines that had been cellared since the 70s!!

To book your own tasting, head to.. http://www.mosswood.com.au

Next on the trail was Miller's award winning ice cream. I had the awarded flavour: MASCARPONE AND WILD FIG... incredible..

This ice cream was so smooth and creamy, nothing like I had eaten before. Eating seasonal, locally produced food really does taste better!

It was about 4:30pm by this stage and we were starting to fade... it was coffee time! We headed across to Yahava for our afternoon fix. The coffee was great, had a real kick! We had a look around their gift shop and found some quirky signs, mugs and other merchandise... this was my personal favourite: