Wine Tasting In The Hunter

Sunset in The Hunter.

Everyone knows that Australia makes loads of wines, and quite decent ones at that. Go anywhere in the world, and you can find a Penfold's, Jacob's Creek or a Wolf Blass. To be fair, if you do live outside of Australia, you're probably not really getting the good stuff - as we keep that for ourselves - that and if you live in Spain or France, where they have their own big industry, Australian wines are competition. I do love a good cheap French wine with some brie and fresh, crusty bread, sitting in a park in the sun and scoffing it all down - mmmmm!!

My favourite kind - drink now!

Back on track - I will stick to Australia! Most people have heard of The Barassa Valley in South Australia (just near Adelaide in fact), and it was also mentioned in previous blogs. This is the main region in Australia, and probably makes the best wines. There is also the Yarra Valley in Victoria, which I've never visited. The Hunter Valley is New South Wales' answer to the Barossa, and lies 2.5 hours north of Sydney, not far from Newcastle. In fact, The Hunter Valley was the first region in the country to be settled for wine making, and the first Australia wine was exported in 1822. The region is just outside the country town of Cessnock (with a population 20,000), has over 120 wine prodcuers and produces many wines from grapes such as Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon.

A lovely case for your favourite bottle.

Two of my friends from the UK (Harry and Ania) were over visiting, staying for two and a half weeks at the end to their 9 months gallivanting around Asia, before heading back home. These are the same 2 friends that I went to Nepal with, and also taught in Spain with. They had already taken me to their first (and mine believe it or not) Aussie Rules game ever, and so we decided to do a bit of wine tasting together. Before leaving, we made a pact - no spitting! We would be swallowers all the way! Well, you're one of the other, and no one likes wasting good wine!

Wine barrels at McGuigan's.

Sound advice!

Some of the local wildlife.

Driving overnight, we made it up just in time to see an absolute ripper of a football match between Australia and Chile. Just to clarify, I call it football now, instead of soccer, as I have spent many years in the UK and Europe and it's just a habit. Although the result wasn't a good one for Australia (and we have since lost our 2nd game, effectively putting us out of the World Cup), we played a brilliant game, way above what our world ranking says. After the slightly disappointed ending to the game, it was a great start to our day - 10am and our first winery! Our first stop was Wynward Estates - and we were greeting by 2 lovely girls serving sparkling Chardonnay with cheese and crackers! Great way to clense the palet, and unfortunately not done by any other winery on our tour. Wynward - points to you! The wines were also lovely, the staff friendly and knowledgable, so much so that the next day we went back and bought some of their lovely Merlo (and had a few tastes just to make sure!).

An old bottle at Drayton's.

Nice glass, shame about the wine.

Not recently...

We visited about 5 other cellars, and I could talk about all of them, but I wont. McGuigan's was a little disappointing to be honest though. It was our last stop, and promised to be good as we there was a big cheese shop attached to the main building. We didn't get any cheese with the wine, the wines were mostly white (I'm a reds man), and staff a little annoying and seemed not to actually want us there tasting. Losers - didn't buy there! Drayton's on the other hand is worth mentioning. It is also the place where we had lunch - a lovely spot of Angus beef with a hearty Shiraz. We were taken down into the cellar, and tried all of their wines (some twice!), before moving onto their ports! I've never had a bottle of port sitting at home, but when someone offers me some, I rarely refuse. Light and dark port, both lovely and warming, but my real favourite was their White Chocolate Liqueur. It was that good that when we went back the next day, I had to try it again, then ask for a try of their dark chocolate one, then another sip of the white, just to make sure... I did buy one, so I wasn't being that cheeky!

Makes me sing Johnny Cash...

14/10 = don't bother with the ambulance, call the undertakers!

On the wine tour, the bus also took us around to chocolate shops and other places for us to spend our tourist money, but one stop that was definately worth it was a condiments store. Known for their chilli, said the bus driver, you will find some hot hot chilli. Bring it! Wandering around, I tasted their olives, oils and mayonaises too... and then I came to their chilli. A very big range for such a small shop, so I was spoilt for choice - so I decided to try one called "Ring 'O Fire." Let me tell you - aptly named! With only a small dip of the bread into the chilli, less then a fingernail's worth, my ring was on fire... it does exactly what it advertises. so I had to get some! The jar is about 300gs worth, and will probably last longer than me! There were other chillis as well, including wasabi chilli, and some even had a rating - I didn't even go near the 15/10 one... how is that possible!!

Wine barrels.

Never keep it bottled up!

Interesting tea towels.

I was however a little surprised about the fact that most wineries here in The Hunter actually don't grow it - they bring it in from other regions around Australia. Some from Orange and Mudgee for example, other from Victoria and South Australia. It was surprising, but then again when I looked around, there was empty land with just grass growing, not vines. The Barossa is different - all you can see is grapes growing in any place that there isn't a house, building or a road. I expected the same from The Hunter, but apparently the weather here isn't as perfect as slightly further down south. Still, there was the Ivanhoe winery that did grow all their own stuff, and my it was tasty! Stopped back in there for a few bottles the next day too. After all this wine tasting however, one does get a bit thirsty, and there's nothing like a cold beer for a hard earned thirst from drinking all day. We had dinner in a great pub in town, a huge serving of schnitzel (which was acutely shaped like Australia - no joke!), and a few more pints to top that off. Completely satisfied with our trip overall - next wine tasting will have to be in the Barossa, or France even!

Sunset over one of the 6 courses in the region.

As a small side-note, while tasting (drinking) wine, we decided to see how many words we could come up with for 'drunk' in English. There are plenty of words for bodily functions in English, and the same goes for putting liquid into our bodies in excess. 25 was how many we came up with and wrote down, but we came up with more at the time, but due to being slightly tipsy (1!), didn't write them down immediately! A few choice ones were: trolleyed (this is quite often when you are actually drunk enough to get in a trolley and be pushed by your mates), slaughtered, hammered and bladdered (for when there is just no more space for liquid left!).