Sydney's Wine Country: A Hunter Valley Wine Tour
There are several wine regions in Australia and the Hunter Valley, known as one of the best, is within a two hour drive of Sydney. For our last day in Sydney, and to celebrate Mr. UR's birthday, we signed up for an all-day Hunter Valley Wine Tour.
Our tour was with Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tours. We met at a central point in Sydney where we were picked up by a mini-coach and then the 16 of us were driven the two hours out to the Hunter Valley.
The Valley contains over 150 wineries and is best known for the Semillon but Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Verdelho are also produced here. It's the oldest wine region in Australia, dating back some 180 years, and it's known for it's rolling green hills. Our tour was to include 2 wineries, the Hermitage Cellar Door for wine and cheese tasting, a Distillery, a Chocolate Shop and lunch at a Brewhouse Cafe. Sound like a perfect birthday, doesn't it?
After a brief stop at a rest area, our first winery visit was at Tulloch Wines which is a fourth generation winery that has been around for 120 years. We had a seated wine tasting of 5 wines and then a roam around the property before we headed out again.
Our next stop was at the Hunter Resort's Cellar Door for a wine and cheese tasting. We tasted some unique cheeses that were quite well matched with the wines and our guide for the hour was quite the comedian. We went around the room finding out where we were all from which ranged from Brazil to the United States to Australia.
For lunch we stayed at the Hunter Resort and ate at Mathilda Bay Brewhouse Cafe. We ordered off the menu and enjoyed our meal al fresco in a very festive atmosphere - I loved that some of the other diners were in their Christmas shirts and Santa hats. It was a fun place to eat and enjoy the outdoors.
Next up was First Creek Wines for a tasting amongst their wine barrels. It was an enjoyable place with a big front porch but I will always remember First Creek for one reason - it's the first place we saw kangaroos in Australia. Hunter Valley has loads of kangaroos in the wild and just outside of First Creek, off in the distance and enjoying the shade of a grove of trees, we saw kangaroos.(Funny story: Mr. UR was the first to spot them and said he saw kangaroos in the trees. I thought he meant "in the trees" and I couldn't figure out why they were climbing trees!) Since kangaroos aren't something I normally see just lazing around, this was so exciting to me. If you head to the Hunter Valley, and you have never seen a kangaroo in the wild, keep your eyes peeled!
Our next three stops were a bit rushed as we were going long on time. We did a wine and chocolate tasting at the Garden Cellars which offers tastings of local boutique wines. (It's famous for it's "tunnel of beer" - which is, well, just that), a distillery tasting at Hunter Valley Distillery which offers organic top shelf spirits ( we did a tasting from test tubes with such flavors as pineapple and juniper berry) and a stop at Hunter Valley Chocolate Shop where we did a "tasting" which was really just a small bit of coffee bean, chocolate and fudge. We did, however, purchase some unique chocolate pasta which we enjoyed later
It was time to head back to Sydney to our drop off point. Unfortunately, traffic was a bear and we got stuck in a bit of it. But we still were able to head to a birthday dinner for Mr. UR in the Rocks district at - what else?- a German beer garden.
I'm glad that we were able to see and experience a bit of the Hunter Valley. For a first time visit, it was a nice, quick tour. ( I liken it to a day tour to Napa from San Francisco if you only have one day to play with)If I was to return, I'd try to do it on my own and spend much more time. But in all, it was a successful day of new sights and tastes.
How about you? Have you toured the Hunter Valley?
Linking up with: My Corner of the World at Photographing New Zealand, The Weekend Wanderlust Weekend Travel Blog Party and Sharon's Souvenirs!
Our tour was with Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tours. We met at a central point in Sydney where we were picked up by a mini-coach and then the 16 of us were driven the two hours out to the Hunter Valley.
The Valley contains over 150 wineries and is best known for the Semillon but Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Verdelho are also produced here. It's the oldest wine region in Australia, dating back some 180 years, and it's known for it's rolling green hills. Our tour was to include 2 wineries, the Hermitage Cellar Door for wine and cheese tasting, a Distillery, a Chocolate Shop and lunch at a Brewhouse Cafe. Sound like a perfect birthday, doesn't it?
After a brief stop at a rest area, our first winery visit was at Tulloch Wines which is a fourth generation winery that has been around for 120 years. We had a seated wine tasting of 5 wines and then a roam around the property before we headed out again.
Our next stop was at the Hunter Resort's Cellar Door for a wine and cheese tasting. We tasted some unique cheeses that were quite well matched with the wines and our guide for the hour was quite the comedian. We went around the room finding out where we were all from which ranged from Brazil to the United States to Australia.
For lunch we stayed at the Hunter Resort and ate at Mathilda Bay Brewhouse Cafe. We ordered off the menu and enjoyed our meal al fresco in a very festive atmosphere - I loved that some of the other diners were in their Christmas shirts and Santa hats. It was a fun place to eat and enjoy the outdoors.
Next up was First Creek Wines for a tasting amongst their wine barrels. It was an enjoyable place with a big front porch but I will always remember First Creek for one reason - it's the first place we saw kangaroos in Australia. Hunter Valley has loads of kangaroos in the wild and just outside of First Creek, off in the distance and enjoying the shade of a grove of trees, we saw kangaroos.(Funny story: Mr. UR was the first to spot them and said he saw kangaroos in the trees. I thought he meant "in the trees" and I couldn't figure out why they were climbing trees!) Since kangaroos aren't something I normally see just lazing around, this was so exciting to me. If you head to the Hunter Valley, and you have never seen a kangaroo in the wild, keep your eyes peeled!
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| Can you spot the kangaroos? |
Our next three stops were a bit rushed as we were going long on time. We did a wine and chocolate tasting at the Garden Cellars which offers tastings of local boutique wines. (It's famous for it's "tunnel of beer" - which is, well, just that), a distillery tasting at Hunter Valley Distillery which offers organic top shelf spirits ( we did a tasting from test tubes with such flavors as pineapple and juniper berry) and a stop at Hunter Valley Chocolate Shop where we did a "tasting" which was really just a small bit of coffee bean, chocolate and fudge. We did, however, purchase some unique chocolate pasta which we enjoyed later
It was time to head back to Sydney to our drop off point. Unfortunately, traffic was a bear and we got stuck in a bit of it. But we still were able to head to a birthday dinner for Mr. UR in the Rocks district at - what else?- a German beer garden.
I'm glad that we were able to see and experience a bit of the Hunter Valley. For a first time visit, it was a nice, quick tour. ( I liken it to a day tour to Napa from San Francisco if you only have one day to play with)If I was to return, I'd try to do it on my own and spend much more time. But in all, it was a successful day of new sights and tastes.
How about you? Have you toured the Hunter Valley?
Linking up with: My Corner of the World at Photographing New Zealand, The Weekend Wanderlust Weekend Travel Blog Party and Sharon's Souvenirs!
Wow, that looks like a great day! Short trips are my favorite kind. I'm sure there is a lot to learn about wine that we don't think about. Lovely photos and Happy birthday to Mr UR!
ReplyDeleteI am delighted that you chose to join My Corner of the World!
Thanks, Betty! And thanks for the link-up and the visit!
DeleteSounds like a great day. I like wine tours so I don't have to do any of the driving (or deal with the traffic.)
ReplyDeleteI agree. And also when I'm driving on the other side of the road. Thanks for visiting, Rhonda!
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