Wine Tasting In The Hunter Valley

Australia is blessed with a great climate and a number of superb wine regions. The rolling vine filled landscape of Hunter Valley is 157km north and slightly inland from Sydney and is best known for its Semillon and its Shiraz. That ticks two boxes for us in search of the good life.

DRIVE: Patonga Beach to Hunter Valley 113km
The Hunter Valley is a hop and a skip up the freeway from Patonga so we had plenty of time to enjoy a Sunday afternoon exploring the wineries.

CAMP: Wine Country Tourist Park, Nulkaba, Hunter Valley, site 19.
The tourist park is small but clean and tidy and is the closest caravan park to the wine action.

After setting up, we immediately headed to Hanging Tree Winery which is just around the corner and hosted by Ken and Kathie. As you can see, “Beware Of Snakes” although Ken showed us a picture of a Red Back Spider killing a Brown Snake, one of the most venomous snakes in Australia, with its own venom. So I say, beware of spiders who eat snakes...

Hanging Tree magnificently preserves the Aussie homestead heritage with the cellar door featuring wine tasting inside a reclaimed 1880s farm shed. Their other farm shed needs a bit of work though...

We tasted a great Semillon and indulged in a couple of vibrant Shiraz reds and the 2013 Blacksmiths Reserve Shiraz Cabernet was our pick.

Onto Ivanhoe Winery “a wine for every Knight” to try something new, a Chambourcine, which is a French/American grafted grape variety, soft and smooth with vibrant cherry and dried spice. The property has outstanding vista views and we were able to tick Geese off the list of Wildlife.

We had certainly peaked too soon as we had tasted quite a few wines and the afternoon sun was calling us for a siesta.

Across from the Tourist Park is Potters Brewery, an old brick and pot making property with many of the original dome kilns still in tact. The Aussie pub favorites, Chicken Parma for me and Beer Battered Fish for Jen finished off with local beers and cider.

All in all, quite an indulgent day.

WILDLIFE
Geese, a picture of a Redback devouring a Brown SnakeEn savoir plus