HUNTER VALLEY

I finish work at 2.30pm on Fridays (one of the benefits of working in the rag trade in Sydney) and so jumped on the 2.39 train from Central heading to Wahroonga where I was meeting the folks. We were heading to The Hunter Valley for the weekend, one of Australia's premium wine making regions and only a few hours drive north of Sydney. We arrived at our accommodation around 6pm and quickly realised we were sharing the area with a lot of kangaroos and birds. As we were leaving to go for dinner, a frog hopped in. He quickly jumped under the fireplace before we could grab him and seeing as we were going to be late for our reservation, we headed out, hoping he wasn't a poisonous one!

We hadn't realised before getting here how fancy the restaurants were and how damn difficult it was to get in anywhere. We had madly rang around a few places only to be told they were full for the Friday and Saturday night!!! We went down the list of places until finding Blaxlands Estate - a place known for its steaks. This sounded perfect so when they said they could squeeze us in at 7 (we called them at 6.54), we jumped at the chance. And that's when our little froggy friend decided to hop on in.

Anyway, dinner was divine, made better by the gorgeous bottle of 2012 Blaxlands Estate Shiraz (brings a whole new meaning to house wine when it is literally grown and made there!!) and the starter of baked camembert. The only thing that was missing was Will. He was working till 6 in Sydney, and was driving up after work to meet us. Eventually the familiar sight of Vanwell rolled into the car park, just in time to see the desert plates being cleared away. At least we'd saved him a little wine!

On the Saturday we had booked a wine tour. We were collected bright and early and exactly on time by Michael, an ex policeman turned wine tour operator which explained his punctuality throughout the day. His tour was run with military precision, arriving at the first vineyard at 10 on the dot to start our first tasting. He was a nice enough chap but he did like to talk down about other peoples tours, stating how many trip advisor reviews he had compared to them.

I had no idea how to 'taste' wine, having never done it before, but our friendly host at Briar Ridge assured me you needed to take a big mouthful, a sip wasn't enough to get a proper taste as the wine would only hit the tastebuds at the front of your tongue and different tastebuds taste different things. Pleased to follow her advice, we all gulped with abandon. This was going to be an interesting day!! 

After a few whites (Semillons) and reds (Shriaz) came a sparkling rose and then a gorgeous fortified dessert wine in an even more gorgeous bottle. The setting was beautiful too, a wooden deck covers with vines and flowers overhead looking out into the countryside. It was also a great spot to introduce ourselves to the other people on the tour and start up a little conversation. We were sure to get to know each other rather well throughout the day with the amount of alcohol lubricating our tongues.

There was a 20 something couple - an Australian guy called Luke and his English girlfriend Cat, along with her sister who was visiting for a couple of weeks. Then there was a 30 something pair of friends, Bonnie from Hawaii who was visiting her friend who's name we've unfortunately forgotten, who lived in Sydney. We found out throughout the day that she loved her wine and often came to the Hunter Valley to stock up on her supplies. She went on to buy a case of assorted wines at pretty much every cellar door we stopped at!

The second vineyard was Tinklers and the tasting was run by a young chap as his dad (the boss) was having his knee replaced. We were well looked after although some amongst us thought his measures were rather mean. I would have to agree if you compared to the previous place, however here we got to try double the amount of wines, so it all worked out even I guess.

The next place was our favourite, it was Usher Tinklers and was owned by Tinklers cooler, more marketing savvy nephew. It was in an old chapel and struck the perfect balance between old and new. Plus there was cheese. CHEESE! We hadn't had good cheese since leaving the uk (apart from the week before at Bruny Island) and here our prayers were answered. They served a cheese and salumi platter (God knows where the 'a' went in salami) and it was incredible. A hard red cheese reminded us of Saturday mornings back in London, where we would head to Borough market with the sole purpose of buying a slice of Comte. It was so bloody good that we couldn't wait to get home to eat it and often devoured it on the tube back! Well this cheese was almost as good as that Comte, which is saying something.

We bought a bottle of their fortified wine, partly because it tasted so good and partly because we loved the bottle. Their wine labels were awesome too, elongated cattle wrapped around to finish 'nose to tail', the name of the wine.

When it was time to go, we hopped into the van to go for lunch. 3 lots of on average 6 wines tasted, all before lunch, yes it was certainly a good idea to eat something! By this time the temperate had really risen and was about 32c. We ate a whole chicken and salad split between the four of us then had a wander around the Pokolbin village shops.

Our next stop of the day was owned by a Scottish fellow. The lady who was helping us was very enthusiastic and even gave us cheeky refills of the ones we liked. However the cheese offering was below par compared to the last place.

The last stop of the day was in a great setting, it was no surprise when we learned they held weddings there. The building itself was all white with fountains and patios to sit out on, with gardens surrounding it. The lady was pretty formidable and quickly put us all in our place, categorising us on our age and gender as to what wines we probably liked. She explained how people's palettes changed with age and how we generally like gluggable white wines when we are younger, move on to complex reds when we're middle aged and then back on to sweeter things when older as the tastebuds start to die off. She was probably right, but she was so abrupt about it I think we all as a group decided to go against her to prove her theory wrong. They had some great wines but there wasn't much chance of mum and dad getting stuff home in one piece and we are on a savings drive so we left empty handed.

Soon it was time to say goodbye to our wine buddies as we got dropped off at our door. It was a bloody good day out, and as we stumbled up the steps to our villa, we saw a mother and baby kangaroo hop on by. So Australian! Michael had looked after us well and taken us to some really great small family vineyards. 

We headed down to check out the pool at the centre of the resort. It was perfect after such a hot day to jump in and do a few lengths. Will managed to knock over someone's scotch that they'd helpfully left right next to the steps to get into the pool. Nice one. After a meagre few lengths we noticed the hot tub. It was a no brainier. We got in and stayed for a few cycles of the bubbles before dragging ourselves out and up the hill. After watching a few more kangaroos and an incredible Aussie sunset, we headed out for dinner at The Cellar, we were all wined out so people stuck to beer and cider. I couldn't stomach anymore alcohol so opted for water. The meal was bloody good, my lamb shank was to die for and mum and dads prawns were humongous. 

The next day we were booked in for lunch at one of the most popular restaurants in Hunter Valley called EXP, but until 1.30 came we had no plans. We headed down to the pool for a spot of relaxation. Lunch was incredible. All the options were small taster plates and you could choose from a 5 or 8 course menu, complete with complimentary wines if you wished and had the cash to do so! As we were driving back to Sydney that night, we went for a bottle to share, one of our favourites from the day before, the Verdelho. The food was incredible and we left the restaurant happy and pleasantly full.

We popped into the cellar door and the rents bought me a couple of bottles of Verdelho for my birthday in a few weeks time.

Then it was sadly time to pack up the van and head back to Sydney, saying goodbye to my parents as they were staying one more night before heading to Sydney airport in the morning to fly home. It had been a brilliant few weeks with them but for now it was goodbye until British summertime when we'll be back for a visit.