Sampling vino in the beautiful Hunter Valley

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First of all, happy Easter! Bizarrely, after all the shops were closed on Good Friday, they all opened up again on Easter Sunday. Figure that one out…

It was time to make a rare trip inland to indulge our love for good wine and to learn about viticulture. I had often dreamt of cycling around vineyards – doing tastings and buying wine – and this was my chance! What we hadn’t factored in was the many hills, but it was a lot of fun. Before hitting the wineries, Dean had some fun playing Aqua Golf at the Hunter Valley Gardens. The plan was to win us a gourmet dinner with wine, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be this time.

There are over 140 wineries in the Lower Hunter Valley alone and its prized wines are the Hunter Semillon and (our favourite) Shiraz. There are plenty of big giants such as Wyndham Estate, Tyrrell’s Wines, Rosemount Estate and Lindeman’s Wines, but (having drunk plenty of their wines already, and wanting to learn about some of the boutique winemakers in the area) we picked out a few lesser known vineyards to visit.

First up, we visited Ernest Hill Wines, a family owned and operated winery this produces just 6,000 cases of wine each year. Their funny quirk is that they name their various varieties after deceased family members. So the (very lovely) “William Henry” Shiraz had had Uncle Bill’s ashes scattered over the vineyard plot. They also had a beautiful “Cyril” Semillon but, as our van fridge isn’t always switched on, we chose a bottle of their equally delicious 2010 Merlot.

I was very excited about visiting the Small Winemakers Centre, which represents a handful of independent winemakers who put their own labour and finances into their business. I loved the concept behind this and the fact that they have organic/biodynamic wines available. We did lots of tasting and settled on a bottle of 2009 Charlie Shiraz by De Iuliis. The Small Winemakers Centre also sells divine gourmet foods (we loved the garlic infused extra virgin olive oil and the hazelnut & pistachio dukkah) and it was such a lovely spot that we decided to stay for lunch. Sitting on their lakeside terrace with the sun glimmering between the trees was truly peaceful. I didn’t feel so peaceful when I realised that I had misread the menu and it turned out that the salad I had ordered was actually a side salad to the Ploughman’s Lunch. So, after some deliberation, I ate my first piece of ham in many years. It was actually quite tasty :-) Dean is over the moon – his once vegetarian girlfriend is eating “proper food” again!

The last winery we visited was Tamburlaine Organic Wines. Although not a large winery in world terms, they are Australia’s largest producer of organic wines. We were very lucky to get gorgeous wine consultant (don’t you love the title?!) Gordon for our tasting. (Dave Hartley, if you’re reading this, he reminded me of you!) Gordon had us sample their delicious reserve wines and explained to us the theory and practice of organic/biodynamic winemaking. I love the fact that Tamburlaine’s do what they do not just because of consumer demand, but because they really believe it’s the way forward. They even use fully recycled glass and labels and have recently introduced a lighter bottle that uses less glass. Their wine is beautiful too and we left with a couple of bottles of the “Wine Lovers” 2010 Cab Sav. Thanks for the great personal service Gordon! Neither of us is all that knowledgeable about wine but today we learnt that the very same grape variety tastes entirely different when grown at different altitudes.

By the afternoon, we were pretty much “wined out” (and I knew I must be over the limit when I started pretending that my bicycle was a racing car) so we headed back to our camping spot (the car park of Cessnock’s regional airport and visitor information centre). Having blown several days’ budget on wine and food, we will need to do some more free-camping and baked-bean-eating to make up for it.

As I write this, Dean is repairing a puncture on his tire. Sadly, whoever is in charge of road maintenance in this area pays no attention to the state of the tarmac at the side of the roads. It was only a matter of time before one of us got a puncture today, and thankfully it was on our way back.

I am sure tonight will be a lot quieter than last night with its crazy thunderstorm. The blanket lightening was spectacular but it got really hot sheltering in the van. As we travel further north, we will need to find a secure and mozzie-free way to sleep with the door or window open.

The rest of our time in the Hunter Valley will be spent relaxing and pondering which bottle of wine to open first.

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