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Published: November 30th 2007
The Road to Hunter Valley
Notice what a gorgeous day it is!Another great day. Our plan was to leave the city (since we had both been to Sydney before) and we chose Hunter Valley for wine tasting. But Instead of taking the $$$ tour with some random company who will probably take us to the wineries they have deals with, Dan made the executive decision to rent a car and drive ourselves. Which in the end, turned out amazing.
So got an early wake up call (Hunter Valley is about 2 hours from Sydney), had breakfast and made our way to Avis to get our car. They had a nice Saab available, so Dan went for it. Drive out there was ok - directions were a bit confusing, but we got there....eventually.
First stop was the post office - we mailed a few things home (that were getting us held up in customs) and sent some postcards. Then we hit the wineries:
(1) Peterson’s - a nice family owned operation - pretty small production, but a lot of types of varieties.
(2) Audrey Wilkinson - is on the edge of the town with a beautiful view over the whole valley, some pretty good wines, we liked the Shiraz.
Be Carful!
No lights, no sound, just make sure you don't get hit Then was time for lunch....stopped at a little grill called Blaxlands, had some snapper and schnitzel. Good stuff.
(3) Lakes Folly - the original Boutique winery in the region. Only had two Cabernets for us to taste, but they were both amazing. Apparently they make a great Chardonnay too, but that has been well sold out for a while.
(4) Brokenwood - they produce one of the only wines of Australian distinction in Hunter Valley, their Graveyard Shiraz - they kept saying top ten, but we weren’t sure top ten of what. Named Graveyard because the land the vines are grown on was originally going to be used by the community to build a graveyard, which they never did. (They also have wines called Cricket Pitch, because the plot of land the vines grown on - before it sloped - was an old Cricket field). Good stuff all around.
From there we drove next door and stopped at the Hunter Valley Cheese Factory for some tastes (I couldn’t resist). They had some really great stuff, and we took a little to go for later. Then headed on.
(5) Keith Tulloch Wines - Keith Tulloch is
Peterson's
Danny tasting a shiraz a winemaker, but the winery owns none of its own vines, they just buy the grapes from other vineyards. We got there a bit late, but the lady was nice enough to help us to a few tastes and a gorgeous view from their upstairs balcony.
Then we were both basically done drinking and wanted to find a place to chill - so we headed to the Hunter Valley Gardens picnic area, and basically ate some cheese, read the paper and chilled for a while. We had dinner reservations at 630 at Roberts Restaurant - one of the most renown in the area. It’s in an old cottage that is part of a wine estate, and it was very cool. And the food - yum. Then at about 8, we set on the ride back to Sydney, we were there about 10ish, packed up the goods (including our three new bottles of wine) and hit the sack.
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rachel
non-member comment
A wallaby perhaps? I heard they have those down under. Or maybe a koala. Kinda reminds me of Pikachu.