319 and 320. Hunter Valley Three

Isla and I had been the Hunter on 2 previous occasions as I’m sure you’ve read but since the folks were in town I thought it was rude not to take them on the wondrous fermented grape journey of discovery that had treated us so well in the past. Besides, any excuse to go the Hunter was a valid one in my book and that included taking my tee-total father and one-can-Dan mother wine tasting.

This time we went with a small company called Boutique Wine Tours for two reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, of all the vineyards we had been to in the past the boutique ones were far more interesting and in general we found the wines and the chat at the tastings to be infinitely more pleasurable than the bigger mass producing cellar doors. Secondly this company had won the “Best Tour Operator – Hunter Valley 2007” award and after getting on the mini-bus it didn’t take long to realise that they absolutely deserved the recent kudos that had been showered on them.

Our driver was an incredibly knowledgeable chap called Jason and he was instantly likeable. The 2 hour drive went incredibly quickly mainly due to a combination of all 13 patrons having to get over their embarrassment and “tell everyone a little bit about yourselves” and Jason’s fact filled cheery banter.

Over the course of the day we would only visit two vineyards that I’d not been to before and the first of that duo was 319. McLeish Wines which was originally started be a Scotsman and had a placard above the entrance stating “Hame o’ McLeish Wines” which really only sounds right if a Scot says it. There wines were of the high standard that we had come to expect in the Hunter and there wasn’t a drop of whisky in sight. The quiet lad who took the tasting was well versed regarding his product and it wasn’t long before I was handing over my bank card and receiving a couple of bottles of red.

After lunch we found ourselves at the 320. Ernest Hill Estate which had by far the best tasting that I’ve ever been to. The surprisingly young bloke who presented the wines was one of the Hill family – also called Jason – and he gave the most heart felt sermon about their wines that just brimmed over with a passion and love for his creations that I’d never noticed with any previous presenter. His emotional attachment to his produce made you feel that if he never sold another bottle of wine for the rest of his life he’d still be the happiest, most content man on the planet provided he had a chair, a wine glass and a few cases of their choice stock.

I don’t want to give you the impression that he was an alcoholic who cared about nothing but wine but when he said, “If you like this Luna Spark late harvest wine then you’d better buy it now because myself and the staff have already drank most of this years vintage” I got the impression that tasting his own wines was more important to him than selling them.

His delivery about each wine and the confident way he spoke was as smooth as the wine he was hawking and was laden with humour and anecdotes that only someone who is 100% confident about what they are talking about can muster. As for the wines, well they were incredible and again the bank card took a hit – one for the team you understand.

Although the Hunter will never end, our trip had to and I feared that it would be my last visit to one of the most memorable destinations of our entire sojourn to the Southern Hemisphere. This was compounded by the fact I would forever more be unimpressed by the vile vinegar-like rubbish that is served up in the UK.