This past weekend involved a trip to the Hunter Vally Vineyards, about two hours north of Sydney. We arrived at the Hunter Valley YHA, the first hostel I’ve stayed at in my life, around 11:30am. After quickly checking in and dumping our stuff in our rooms, we headed out to the bus for our wine tasting tour.
Our first stop was the Dayton’s family vineyard. They run a fairly large operation, though they don’t export internationally, they do their own bottling and do some bottling for smaller neighboring vineyards. While there, we tried a sample of chardonnays, rieslings, ports and chocolate liquors. My favorites here were the Unwooded Chardonnay and the Traminer Riesling. The 12 year-old port was also the best port I’ve ever had, though not as good as these two wines. After the sampling, they took us on a quick tour of their bottling facilities, and the area where their wine club members get to do their sampling.
Our next stop was at a very small vineyard called Tinklers. Featured here was an adorable black lab, along with some wines. My top picks here were the Verdelho, a light sweet white, and the Volcanic Ash, a very light fruity wine with a hint of sweet. They also had quite a selection of fresh jams like apricot pumpkin.
After lunch, we stopped at a pretty well known vineyard, Rosemount. Rosemount is one of the larger wine producers in the Hunter Valley and is known in the international markets of the US and UK. The wines here were absolutely fantastic, with my favorites being their Traminer Riesling (I just realized as writing this that I already bought a Traminer Riesling!), and their very popular “O” (which is best served Over ice). Their 2007 stock of “O” sold out in 3 months, and they are expecting similar for their next harvest, hoping to eventually start exporting it to the US.
The last place that we stopped was the Hanging Tree vineyard, which by far had the most stunning views. Vineyards surrounded by small lakes all set in front of a breathtaking mountainous background. Unfortunately, none of the wines really struck me at this place, though they were mostly dry reds and as you can probably tell by now I tend to prefer fruity and sweet whites. They did have a very nice Cabernet with a hint of cinnamon, and a peppery merlot which I enjoyed small amounts of, but couldn’t have more than a glass of.

After our wonderful wine tasting, we headed back to the hostel. After hanging out pool side (freezing!), we got to make our own pizzas and have them cooked in a wood pizza oven! My pizza turned out amazingly, and everybody had a good time throwing together their own. After dinner we walked about 300m down the road to the local micro brewery and pub, Potters. It was karaoke night and it was packed! I think all of Hunter Valley showed up Saturday night.

Sunday morning started with a trip to the “Smelly Cheese Shop” where I acquired the most amazing Feta cheese I’ve ever had. It is Cow Feta with sundried tomatoes and garlic. It is absolutely delicious and I am addicted. I had to buy a jar, which I’ll hopefully be able to make last a little while. We ended up walking home (we got a ride there) and along the way had to walk past a roadkill Kangaroo. They really are akin to deer in the Midwest, as a hazard to motorists. The walk took an hour and a half, it was extremely scenic and I quite enjoyed it. It was nice to be able to walk and be out of the city, away from the noise, the people, the cars.
We went back to Potters Brewery for a 2pm brewery tour. This is by far the smallest operation I’ve ever seen. They had one 600L brew kettle, and a cooler that the group of us (15 on the tour?) barely fit into around the machinery and kegs they were storing. They did have some very nice selections however, my favorite being the Hunter Kölsch, a German style ale. After the tour we headed back to the hostel and relaxed until the bus came to whisk us back to the city from a weekend away that felt far too short.

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 @ 6:10 am Australia, Travels
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