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Published: October 20th 2009
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The Hunter Valley is famous as one of Australia's finest wine producing regions so on the Bank Holiday weekend we decided to head up with with Andy, Kayte and Charlie to sample some of the delicious wines on offer. We both booked the Friday off work and met up with Andy near the harbour in Sydney before catching a ferry over to Manly, sinking a quick beer (the delicious James Squire Amber Ale that I have become quickly addicted to - who says all Aussie beers are rubbish??) and playing some pool while we waited to be picked up by Kayte. We then headed back to theirs to pick up all the bags, then to school to collect Charlie before hitting the road. After a few hours of driving we arrived at the lodge that Kayte and Andy had booked, a really cute little place in a village called Wollombi in the Hunter Region. Andy and I quickly ducked out for some matches to light the fire while Amy and Kayte sorted out some snacks for dinner. The only place to buy matches was the local pub, the Wollombi Tavern where we also downed a cheeky schooner while checking the place
out. It was a stereotypical Aussie rural pub complete with guys in checked shirts, an outdoor dunny and even medals of the previous year's woodchopping winner on display on the walls.
The rest of the evening was spent drinking wine and chatting but when the wine ran out around midnight Amy, Andy and I quickly nipped out to the Wollombi Tavern to buy a few beers to take back to the lodge. On the way in we were asked "How you going mate?" by virtually everybody in the pub, a common Aussie greeting that is said so quickly that is becomes one word. We chatted to one particularly inebriated chap at the bar while we got some beers to take away and then hit the sack a couple of hours later.
The next morning we were up and out early to start the wine tasting. Kayte spent a while as a wine journalist and is incredibly knowledgable about wine so had given us a lesson on how to taste wine the previous night. Armed with a map and a thirst we drove for half an hour to the area that Kayte had planned we were to spend the
first day in, bouncing from winery to winery sampling the wares. First stop was Peterson House, a sparkling wine specialst. We felt rather daft sipping at the free tasters and declaring we could taste peach and cantaloupe melon but quickly got into the swing of things and decided we both liked one particular wine much more than the others and bought a bottle. It is apparently polite to buy at least one bottle from each place you taste at so we had started well! Amy even bought herself a t-shirt to go with the bubbles.
Tower Estate was next, a famous winery that even I had heard of. The guy at the bar was incredibly helpful and gave us great information about the wines we were tasting and even how the glass could make a big difference to the enjoyment of the wine. We thought it was all wine buff exaggaration but when he gave us a taste of the same wine in different glasses the difference in taste was more obvious than we would have ever thought. We chatted to him for quite a while about the dozens of factors that influence a wine and of course, bought
a bottle.
We then tried out a few more places and became more exotic with the flavours we believed we could taste. When Kayte had given us our tasting lesson the previous night and asked what we could taste, Amy jokingly replied "Er, wine" but by the time we reached our fifth winery of the day (and were by this point quite tipsy) I was suggesting I could taste toasted brioche in a chardonnay and old leather in a shiraz, much to the amusement of Andy. Pretentious, moi?
We went for lunch at a themed pub that seemed like an Irish version of a Harvester (albeit less tacky) and had some delicious food before taking in another winery or two and then heading back to the lodge. After a big lunch and lots of wine we all took a well deserved nap before drinking some of the wine we had bought over a game of trivial pursuit and some more cheese and crackers.
The next morning we were up and out early again for some tea at a lovely local cafe with very picturesque gardens before heading to a couple more wineries. For lunch Kayte and Andy
kindly treated us to a meal at the restaurant associated with Poole's Rock Wines which looked out over the vines and hills in the distance. Of course, lunch was also accompanied by some very nice wine! After lunch we went shopping for supplies in a small retail complex with lots of little boutique shops and stalls. Kayte went to buy more cheese, pate and crackers for dinner that night while Amy, Andy, Charlie and I went to buy some sweet from The British Lolly Shop which had old fashioned sweets in jars covering every available inch of wall space. We stopped off at one more winery for a quick sample before heading back to the lodge for some uno, wine and food.
On Monday morning there was a market set up in one of the fields by the Wollombi Tavern just a short walk from our lodge. We wandered around looking through the various stalls and marvelling at the weird, wonderful and quite often, utterly useless things people were hawking. Suddenly it was like being back in a Vietnamese market. Only with more sheepskin.
Around midday we headed back to Sydney via a gorgeous pub called The Settlers
Inn that Kayte had heard of and that could only be reached after nearly an hour of bouncing down a windy unsealed road to the tiny village it was in. The stomach churning drive was well worth it as the food was outstanding and the gardens (complete with leather clad bikers enjoying a sunday roast) were lovely to sit in as the sun finally showed itself after a rather overcast but thouroughly enjoyable weekend.
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Bernice
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Bye Lee
It was great working with you - such a treat having someone there who knows stuff and reads. Hope you and Amy (Amy?) have a great trip (even though you're going to be travelling through hell at this time of year). And remember, Australia is a huge country - plenty of space to hide a corpse - so don't hitch-hike! Bernice