80 - 85. HUNTER VALLEY

Everyone in Sydney raves continuously about how good the wine tasting experience is at the Hunter Valley so we relented and took a tour round some of the vineyards (I have to confess that it didn’t take much pushing). We went with Wine Rovers Tours and it was excellent value for money. $40 each gave us opportunity to visit several of the grape growers in the region and sample several wines without the inconvenience of one of us having to drive.

It would have been easy to just list all the wines we tried that day but I felt that would be kind of cheating so instead I’ve just talked about each of the places we visited and counted each of them as one notch on the Challenge belt.

80. Robyn Drayton Wines

Our day started early in the morning and within a couple of hours we were in Wine Country. The first stop was at Robyn’s winery. It’s a small wine producer – known as a Boutique vineyard – and we certainly got the personal treatment from Robyn. She knew each of her wines intimately although considering one of them is called “Foreplay” perhaps that’s not the best description.

The Cellar Door is in beautiful surroundings and after soaking in the atmosphere we sat down at the tasting tables and were given 6 or 7 different wines to taste and a bit of chat about each of them. It was an excellent start to the days touring and we had to buy a couple of bottles from Robyn. Besides it seemed more sensible to buy wines early on in the day before our taste buds were too fried to tell what was good and what wasn’t.

81. Tulloch’s Wines

Amazing. Without any shadow of a doubt, the best part of the day. This was our second stop and I would have quite happily spent the whole day here. Once we got out the bus we were taken into one of the many tasting rooms where a chap called Jim Smith took us through a bunch of wines they had on offer for tasting. He was really knowledgeable about their wines and had great banter.

We must have tried about 8 wines and the tasting started with a fabulous Cuvee which we just had to buy a bottle of. Just when we thought the tasting was over, Jim told us that we should head into the bar for the opportunity to try any other wines we wanted. I had about 4 or 5 more tastes and every one was marvellous. Just as I was getting my vino-head on our driver told us that it was time to go for lunch. That was certainly a buzz-kill but we were only half way through the day so it was well timed.

82. McGuigan Cellar Door

We had over an hour for lunch and we stopped in at the Hunter Valley Gardens. There was a brilliant restaurant called Oscars where I bought “the Works” burger. It was astounding and gargantuan and it took almost the entire lunch break to devour it. However, not wanting to be out done I set too it. Once it had been polished off we went to explore the complex and stumbled upon another Cellar Door called McGuigan’s. It was only a short walk from Oscar's and unfortunately not enought to walk off the vast meal I'd just had.

They sold a whole variety of wines from around the Valley so we got into another tasting. They were profiling Cockfighter’s Ghost wines and we got stuck into a few more. However, they were average in comparison to the ones we had tried earlier in the day so headed back to the bus for the remainder of the tour.

83. Tyrrell Wines

This was the largest wine company we visited during the day. Our stop here started with a tour of the wine making process. It took about 45 minutes and was really informative. However, the tour is only run once a week so there was about 50 or so people there.



Unfortunately, some of the people there had brought their kids with them and they, obviously, had no interest in how wine is made and so shouted and carried on throughout the whole tour. Not only that but there was three Japanese people on the tour that didn’t speak any English so to make up for it they spoke in Japanese throughout the whole tour – loudly.

After the tour was over we finally got to the wine tasting. However this was a real let down. There were far too many people to start with and the tasting was a total free for all. There was no chat about the different wines and we were just handed a menu. The bar was ridiculously busy and the few wines that we managed to try were sour and fizzed on the tongue. It didn’t take long for us to realise that we didn’t like any of their produce so we made a sharp exit for the bus. However, on the way out we spied this great breathalizer... I'll not tell you what the results said!

84. Binnorie Dairy Cheese Tasting

This was a great experience. There is a reasonably famous cheesemongers in Glasgow but I’ve never actually been to a bone fide cheese tasting. This dairy specialises in soft cheeses and they had several available to taste. We tasted about 6 different ones and they were all amazing especially the marinated feta. I totally recommend it if you get the chance to try it. We were going to buy some but we figured that the bus would be stinking but the end of the day – and ever would it we bought some cheese.

85. Arrowhead Wines

This was our last stop of the day and it was overshadowed by the fact that there was a wedding happening outside the Cellar Door. The people running the tasting seemed more interested in waiting to see the bride than telling us about the wines. We tried about another 5 wines but none were that great. Actually, some of them might have been but my tongue had given up and was making everything taste the same. I took this photo for Sophie. Seems they’ve named a wine after you!

Anyway, that was the end of the tour and we had probably had tasted enough wine to last us a lifetime – well at least until the next time we visit the Valley.