Hop-on, hop-off wine tour company Hop It is adapting to the quaran-times by taking its wine tours online. Hop It at Home lets Melburnians gastronomically explore the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula while responsibly staying at home.
Hop It At Home reverses the wine tour experience. Instead of you hopping on a bus to hit the vineyards, the vineyards come to you. Working largely with small producers the company arranges for the tasting products to be delivered to your house. On the date of the tour guests then join a Zoom meeting to taste through the products with the producers themselves.
The next Hop It At Home tour will be a super luxe affair featuring wine, rum and chocolate from the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula. The virtual event starts at 7.45pm on Friday, September 25 and will give gourmands the chance to taste Oakridge Wines' 2018 chardonnay alongside milk and dark chocolates from Cuvée. Guests will then finish the night learning how to make a deconstructed Mojito using rum from JimmyRum.
The experience can be shared between one to two people (people that you live with) and includes one 750ml bottle of Oakridge Wines' 2018 chardonnay, one 50ml bottle of JimmyRum Oaked, two single serve JimmyRum cocktails, two 70g Cuvée chocolates, one Capi sparkling soda, plus a $10 Hop It voucher to use in the Aftertime. You'll also be guided through the evening by experts from each venue and will have the chance to ask any burning questions. Of course if you live in a bigger household, you can always purchase multiple tickets so everyone can take part.
Anyone living in Australia can take part but delivery arrangements differ depending on your location. Melbourne, you need to make your booking at least eight hours in advance (shipping is free for those living within 65km of Melbourne). Interstate wine fans will need to place their orders at least five days in advance to allow for delivery, which will incur a $10 fee.
Anyone interested in joining the virtual tours can book their place via Hop It’s website.