Wine Tours

You’ve picked the right spot; with the beach just 15 minutes away from your closest winery, there’s never a dull moment in the region. But finding the best wine tour in McLaren Vale amongst tens of tours available can be hit and miss if you don’t have experts on the region such as ourselves to show you the most informative, friendly, and bang-for-your-buck options.

We’ve segmented this review on the 4 most popular formats of wine tours;

The Best Wine Tours

Limo Wine Tours

Bus Wine Tours

Cycling Wine Tours

Other Popular Articles on Mclaren Vale

South Australian Wine Regions

Lunches in Mclaren Vale

Accommodation Mclaren Vale

Restaurants in Mclaren Vale

The Best Wine Tours in Mclaren Vale by Car

This category includes all wine tours by car, from luxury, shared and private tours. We’ll include all information about the tour as well as booking details if you decide you’re keen to book on the spot.

Full-day Wine Tour of Mclaren Vale – by Wine Diva

Wine Diva has been touring the Vale for quite some time, and they have the expertise to offer a fantastic and informative experience.

For groups up to 8, cruise along with a charismatic tour guide in their luxury Mercedes Benz bus and experience private tastings with local winemakers, complimentary lunch platters amongst the vines, with pick up and drop off included. 

This tour has been rated one of the best in the region and not just by us, their recommendation comes reinforced by many who have experienced the region. It’s the perfect balance of a premium, informative yet relaxed wine tour. Wine Diva don’t really have a set routine for the wineries they visit but after booking you’ll be given more info on the direction of your trip. See details below!

More Info: Tour
Price: $ 165.00

Reviews:

5.0 Google Review from 15 reviews

5.0 Trip Advisor from 303 reviews

Mclaren Vale and the Cube Experience

This wine tour of the Mclaren Vale region summarises the offering of the abundant land (almost) in a day. From coast to country, there are four stops – which may not sound like much, but when we wine tour un-guided, we hardly make it past the second winery. 

Start at stump hill cafe to get the pallet charging with a few wines from the region that are slightly more boutique and not on offer via cellar door. Then it’s off to the trophy catch, the place worth doing a post about, d’Aranberg’s Cube. The Cube is a ginormous, extraterrestrial relic-like structure that almost looks as if it could be an offering to the gods thousands of years ago, yet no one understands the physics of how it was erected. 

We won’t spoil the surprise, but we’ll give you a taste – on this tour, you get to indulge in a premium wine tasting on level four. You’re given ample time to survey the galleries, and then it’s to Polly’s Restaurant for a 2-course meal. You can read more about it in our write-up on the Best Wineries in Mclaren Vale.

It doesn’t end there; then it’s off to two more wineries. It is subject to rotate every now and then but commonly, you’ll head to Beresford Wines and Wirra Wirra Vineyards to finish off the day!

More Info: Tour
Price: $ 195

Reviews:

4.4 Google Review from 16 reviews

4.0 Trip Advisor from 168 reviews

Limo Wine Tours Mclaren Vale

See Mclaren Vale in style. Indulge in the comfort of being chauffeured in a Limo, through the countryside stopping in at some of the best cellar doors in the country. 

Grandeur Limousines Wine Tours

Whether you’re on a hens party, honeymoon, or you’re famous and not trying to be inconspicuous… at all, Grandeur Limo Wine Tours Mclaren Vale offers the most eloquent, unrivalled and premium chauffeur services in the region. 

With so many luxury accommodations in Mclaren Vale, it’s easy to slot right into the indulgent life. It’s no misconception that the last few years have been tricky for everyone, so we dare say you deserve to be treated like a queen. 

One of the reasons Grandeur Limos stands out among the rest is that it isn’t a one-trick pony, one size fits all or whatever metaphor you want to use; you can completely tailor your trip beforehand and then on the day simply relax and let the pros do their thing. Unless you know nothing about the region and you do not wish to, then they also can solely take care of the planning as well. Check them out below!

More Info: Tour
Price: $

Reviews:

Google Review from reviews

Trip Advisor from reviews

Bus Wine Tour Mclaren Vale

Whether you’re looking for a private bus tour with a large group (usually up to 20 people) or you don’t mind going on your wine adventure with a few new companions, a bus tour offers flexibility and it’s a great medium to meet fellow wine lovers. 

McLaren Vale Hop On Hop Off Tour – City Pick Up & Return

There is great flexibility on this simplistic wine tour through the Mclaren Vale region. If you don’t like the idea of formality or someone guiding you through the history and popular grape varietals of the region, then the bus tour might be the option for you; it’s also almost half the price. But with a price decrease, there are obviously fewer perks. 

With the bus tour, you have to be really organised. It’s a hop-on-hop-off system with the option to spend longer at wineries. But YOU have to book your lunch or tasting – the company does not do this for you. So it’s best to have a solid itinerary and work off that. 

(Want a sneak peek of the Winery Lunches in Mclaren Vale you should choose from?)

The perks of the Bus Tour? Well, no one has to risk blowing over the limit (or worse), and no one has to sacrifice participating in the wine tasting to drive their annoying (chanting in the back seat) friends from winery to winery. 

Pick up and drop off in Adelaide CBD or in Mclaren Vale at the Stamford Plaza Hotel.

More Info: Tour
Price: Approx. $ 79.95 pp

Reviews:

4.8 Google Review from 74 reviews

5.0 Trip Advisor from 1426 reviews

Cycling Tours, Mclaren Vale

If you’re a bit of a thrill-seeking vino enthusiast, then a cycling tour through the Mclaren Vale may be the experience to scratch that adrenaline itch. But different tour companies offer different levels of experience, one may give you a flat and cruise ride, pick the wrong (or right) one, and you may just be speeding down more advanced hills and bush tracks holding on for dear life.

Escape Goat Cycling Tours

The Escape Goat bike tour is not your typical wine-tasting excursion. Rather than being a traditional wine tasting journey, it’s more of a nature-based adventure through this beautiful section of South Australia by mountain bike with plenty of good quality wine tasting and local products included! You’ll ride high-end mountain bikes, so you get to see the country instead of being restricted to asphalt roads and bike paths. 

You’ll see some amazing areas of the region that other tourists don’t get a chance to witness. You’ll zip through some of South Australia’s spectacular National Parks, descend Wickhams Hill in an exciting (but easy) downhill ride, and crawl through the vines to discover delicious local wineries.

If you’re concerned about your fitness, don’t be. You’ll begin at the highest point in the region and ride mostly downhill! This is a leisurely bike journey for new bikers. 

Trips operate daily, including Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Other days may be arranged if there are no Wednesday trips during off-peak period.

More Info: Tour
Price: $ 159

Reviews:

4.8 Google Review from 38 reviews

5.0 Trip Advisor from 547 reviews

Every wine tour is a different experience, which isn’t the same as saying they are all excellent. When someone tells you their Yarra Valley wine tour package was . . . interesting, it means they think you should steer clear.  That’s not what we want. 

What we want is for you to experience a Yarra Valley wine tour that is damn-near guaranteed to delight you, inform and entertain you, and leave you with the feeling that you’ve tasted the best parts of the region. The best Yarra Valley wine tours can pick up and deliver your group back to Melbourne, or from wherever your Yarra Valley accommodation is based. All ready then? Ok, off we go. . .

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The Best Yarra Valley Wine Tours

For luxury wine tours, we had to go with the group that sit at TripAdvisor’s #1 spot for food and drink in the Yarra Valley, The Yarra Valley Touring Co. Everyone else raves about them, so they are a sure bet. Yarra Valley Winery Tours and Wombat Tours and Transfers are here too for their wealth of experience and local knowledge, and for their super-friendly tour guides.

Wild Wombat Winery Tours

With so many amazing places to stop in for a drink and feed, it’s always good to get an expert to show you around their wine region. After a little digging around, we found Wombat Tours and Transfers, a tour company specializing in Yarra Valley wineries, restaurants and events’ transfers. Check out The Young Guns and Upstarts tour that runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and can pick your small group of 6 to 8 up from central Melbourne. 

The tour experience takes in a select group of the Yarra Valley’s newest and most interesting winemakers. Stops include tastings at places like Soumah, Innocent Bystander, Payten and Jones, Warramunda and Medhurst. If you want to know what the bright future of wine in Australia will look like, then this tour is it.

For a slightly more traditional flavour, book a Yarra Valley Experiences Tour. While they will take you through some boutique cellar doors, this tour is geared to highlight the best the region has to offer. The day tours run from Monday to Sunday and only take small groups (up to 10). They also specialise in events’ transfers and can easily drop you at any accommodation spot you’ve booked. 

Yarra Valley Touring Co

The Yarra Valley Touring Co. is easily the best winery tour operator on this list. They offer a wide range of luxury winery tours all to suit the length of your holiday and/or budget. They don’t limit themselves to just wineries either, stopping in at distilleries for gin and breweries for cider and beer. Look at this list of tour packages: 

Pick the Yarra Valley Wine, Bubbles and Gin Tour if you’re looking for a day trip (includes stops at Yering Station, cocktails at Napoleone, wine at Helen’s Hill).

Go for the Yarra Valley Romantic Winter getaway if it’s just the two of you (includes a night at Yering Gorge Cottages and a private grazing day tour).

The Big Weekend Package (with two nights in the Yarra Valley and stops at Yering Farm, Killara Estate and others).

And lastly, our pick, the Yarra Valley Decadent AF Tour that includes Champagne Breakfast at Domain Chandon, a three-course lunch at Domonique Portet Winery, stops at Innocent Bystander and Four Pillars Distillery, and tastings at Dame Nellie’s old pad, Coombe Yarra Valley. 

If none of these work for you, they also do Designer Yarra Valley Wine Tours, which – take it from them – offers a “tailored Yarra Valley tour transport and accommodation package designed by wine lovers”. 

Yarra Valley Winery Tours

Yarra Valley Winery Tours do everything from exclusive tours, group tours, corporate group tours, events’ transfers and even brewery tours.

Their customized Exclusive Tour takes you for the day to a mix of 4 or 5 iconic and boutique wineries, includes door-to-door service and a chance to visit the region’s other attractions. Their group bookings are not limited by size and can do anything from Ladies’ Days to corporate functions to Christmas parties. You can ask them to take you to the wineries you want to see, or let them take care of all that, stress-free. 

Their level of experience means we had to get them on this list. Established in 1992 and based in the Yarra Valley, their superior local knowledge means that when they whisk you between the best tastings at the best Yarra Valley wineries, you’ll know they’re helping you to sample . . . well, the best. Whether it’s the secrets of the biggest names in Australian wine or the hidden gems with labels you won’t find outside of the cellar door, Yarra Valley Winery Tours will set you up for a classic experience you won’t soon forget.

Yarra Valley Wine Tours and Accommodation

With so many places to stop at for a sip, we hope we’ve taken some of the worry out of your next visit to the Valley. Whether it’s an intimate tour for two or you’ve got a huge group you want to drag out of their city stupor, these winery tour companies operate to ensure you taste the best.

Not only does the Yarra Valley wine region offer these incredible tour packages, but the area also has some of the best luxury accommodation to be found anywhere in Victoria. Time to stop tossing up whether to take that trip and get to booking an unforgettable food and wine adventure.