Hunter Valley
We loved the Hunter Valley, Australia's prime wine growing region and we spent the day driving to different wineries and sampling their fares! Yum yum...
We visited Bimbadgens, Tyrell's, Blueberry Hill, Mistletoe and Tempus Two - the main grape varieties grown are Pinot Noir and Shiraz. So we drank a lot of Shiraz and Semillon. Because of the drought, the grape harvest was not as big as in usual wetter years, but instead, the berries were smaller and a lot sweeter, making a better wine, so the winemakers were happy enough still.
We really enjoyed the tour at Tyrell's as well, our guide was very funny and he talked us through the whole process, showing us the different machines and barrels.
After all that tasting though, we were glad when we made our way to a dairy there, that was renowned for its many cheeses. We bought this lovely yoghurt cheese marinated in olive oil there and at another cheese shop, we got some brie and blue cheese and crackers. These, together with the lovliest dessert wine was our dinner for that night! Wonderful!
The vineyards all looked a bit bare, because it is now coming to winter, but it was still very soothing to look at the rolling hills with the wine stocks. The countryside is really so beautiful there. Unfortunately, we had to get going, we would have liked to spend another day to visit some more wineries, but we have to get going to Sydney.
Leaving the valley was a bit difficult though - we meant to just go to the next village to spend the night there, but there was nowhere suitable, so we ended up driving again through hills and forests on narrow pitch dark roads. Deja vu scary night in national park, but this time, there was no one watching us, so that was good!
Mind you, the villages in the region were having a scarecrow festival I think, so there were all these scarecrows along the side of the street, dressed in normal clothes and ones dressed like children on tricycles and stuff and they were super duper creepy! I kept thinking they were real people trying to cross the road - so scary. Phil couldn't drive because he had too much wine - you can breath test yourself in the wineries! - so I had to drive and it was spooky.
Finally we made it to Gosford for Anzac Day.
We visited Bimbadgens, Tyrell's, Blueberry Hill, Mistletoe and Tempus Two - the main grape varieties grown are Pinot Noir and Shiraz. So we drank a lot of Shiraz and Semillon. Because of the drought, the grape harvest was not as big as in usual wetter years, but instead, the berries were smaller and a lot sweeter, making a better wine, so the winemakers were happy enough still.
We really enjoyed the tour at Tyrell's as well, our guide was very funny and he talked us through the whole process, showing us the different machines and barrels.
After all that tasting though, we were glad when we made our way to a dairy there, that was renowned for its many cheeses. We bought this lovely yoghurt cheese marinated in olive oil there and at another cheese shop, we got some brie and blue cheese and crackers. These, together with the lovliest dessert wine was our dinner for that night! Wonderful!
The vineyards all looked a bit bare, because it is now coming to winter, but it was still very soothing to look at the rolling hills with the wine stocks. The countryside is really so beautiful there. Unfortunately, we had to get going, we would have liked to spend another day to visit some more wineries, but we have to get going to Sydney.
Leaving the valley was a bit difficult though - we meant to just go to the next village to spend the night there, but there was nowhere suitable, so we ended up driving again through hills and forests on narrow pitch dark roads. Deja vu scary night in national park, but this time, there was no one watching us, so that was good!
Mind you, the villages in the region were having a scarecrow festival I think, so there were all these scarecrows along the side of the street, dressed in normal clothes and ones dressed like children on tricycles and stuff and they were super duper creepy! I kept thinking they were real people trying to cross the road - so scary. Phil couldn't drive because he had too much wine - you can breath test yourself in the wineries! - so I had to drive and it was spooky.
Finally we made it to Gosford for Anzac Day.
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 2:38 AM
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