A day of wine and roses - and cheese

After yesterday’s rushed breakfast, it was good to be able to enjoy the vast breakfast buffet selection in an unhurried manner this morning. Today’s program was centred around Pokolbin with none of the bus rides exceeding ten minutes.

Our resort adjoins the Hunter Valley Gardens, so it’s a very short walk between the two. This privately owned and run facility is really quite something. Our very knowledgable guide was one of the site managers who has worked at the gardens for some 20 years. To quote from the website: “Spread across 14 hectares encompassing 10 internationally themed gardens to explore, there is something for everyone, including the ever-popular Storybook Garden. 8km of pathways will lead you to spectacular vistas including a 10m high waterfall, topiary displays, man-made ponds, statues, murals, beautiful architectural structures and much more. In the Gardens there are 6,000 trees, 600,000 shrubs and over 1 million ground covers.” It was founded and established by the Roche family in 2003 it is the largest public display garden in the Southern Hemisphere.

Adding to the interest there is currently a large temporary display containing numerous animatronic dinosaurs and mythical fearsome beasts spread throughout the gardens. This display, coinciding with school holidays, meant there were some areas which were infested with ankle-biters of various shapes, sizes and colours. Fortunately there were also plenty of quiet uninhabited spaces in the vast gardens where one could enjoy nature. While some members of our group were unimpressed by the roaring, moving fearsome creatures I admit that secretly I was impressed by the smart technology and the realism of it all.

Next stop from there was the local cheese factory, As with yesterday’s chocolate factory there was a very large retail area with hundreds of delicatessen-style products on display. Some quick mental arithmetic indicated that all the cheeses were selling for around $120/kg, so it was easy for me to resist the temptation to buy any. By then, a pattern was forming in my mind. All these artisanal places sell their particular specialties at high touristy prices, but alongside those is always a huge array of other food delicacies - jams, pickles, sauces and so much more. It’s all tempting and beautiful, but it ain’t cheap! Confirming this pattern, the winery we visited afterwards also sold far more than just its own products - see below. As long as tourists understand the rules of the game there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing.

After that it was lunch at Ronnie’s, a restaurant in the village adjacent to the resort. Even though the food was delicious and it was an excellent setting none of our group was really hungry, and the portions turned out to be really generous. Quite a challenge.

The previous afternoon I had spotted a British sweet shop, also in the village, but at that time it was closing for the day, so I’d already decided on a return visit during opening hours. Several others in our group obviously had similar plans, so several of us, me very much included, walked away with large lolly purchases.

Our final appointment for the day was a 2.15pm visit to Ben Ean winery for a wine tasting. There we were sat at a long table in their tasting room with several glasses placed in front of each of us. We were treated to samples of three whites and three reds plus two sparkling wines to try. Apart from the moscato, which was way too sweet for my taste, the wines were pleasant enough, though I wasn’t tempted to spend the $30 to $40 per bottle for any of the range. It would have been wasted on me. From the tasting room we moved downstairs to the shop and restaurant - not that any of us were there for the food. The pizzas there looked most appealing, and under other circumstances I would be delighted to go there for a meal and plenty of wine - with a designated driver, of course. As with the two earlier factory visits there were plenty of other food- and drink-related items also available for sale. Several of our group purchased wine to take home with them, which was good.

What was especially pleasing was that all four of these places, including the lolly shop, were really quite busy, so it seems that there are still plenty of people willing to spend money while supporting local industry.Read more