Hello, Old hands in the NG will no doubt be amazed to find that the Dynamic Duo (self + Xina) are leaving the old haunts of Europe for a Land Down Under, to wit, Australia, sometimes also called Oz (and many other things). Yes, we will depart for two weeks, on business mostly - conference voyage, this, and very little time for idleness. One day (and two nughts), to be precise. We will be stationed in Sydney, so that would appear to cut down possible wine explorations to ... Hunter Valley? Am I correct? I have also heard that outings, by coach, to various wine producers, is available. Are they worthwhile? Did the gent who made similar enquiries (Salil) beginning of June complete that voyage and what were his experiences? I know that Google-san is my friend but, unfortunately, he is very prolix in his advice - I did Hunter Valley wine tourism and got 534 000 hits!!
"Ed Rasimus" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
As I said, we are there for conferences (two of them), so we will stay for a good two weeks in Sydney. The extent of our idleness is from afternoon Fri Sept 8 to evening Sun Sept 10.
No. Besides, I would be extremely frustrated by all the beautiful wines I would be unable to bring home, due to weight limitations. To the point where I have seriously thought of not visiting any wine region at all, and rather indulhe in a day of vigorous hiking.
Yes, Salil did complete that voyage and had a quite phenomenal experience.
Firstly, you'll most probably need to travel there by coach. The Hunter's about 2 hours away from Sydney, and unless you know the route there, the area and can drive there and back, it's the easiest way to go about it. There are a lot of pretty good tour operators around - I went there on one day with Boutique Wine Tours (88 AUD for the weekday, no lunch) and as the name implies, they tend to focus on slightly smaller wineries. The service is quite good - the buses are excellent (small, 14 seater Mercedes buses with a very good driver/guide), and a day trip with them included two wineries pre-lunch, then lunch (either with them at extra cost, or on your own - and there are a couple of restaurants/bistros in the Hunter Valley Gardens area where they stop), time to wander around and do more tasting (Hunter Cellars is a good destination to just taste and buy a few wines from various wineries in the area - alternatively, there's a cheese factory and a chocolate shop in the vicinity), and then another winery after lunch. And of course picking/dropping off at the hotel in the city. They are quite flexible though in the itinerary - I was keen on going to McWilliams' Mount Pleasant and had specified that when making my booking, so the bus driver was able to accomodate me in the schedule and drove me there separately for my pre-booked tour/tasting there.
I went on another day with a friend who drove, so we managed to see some of the other wineries that the wine tour didn't cover. Among those we visited;
- Audrey Wilkinson (with the Boutique Wines group) - nice cellar door, very friendly staff with a great tasting experience - wines were very good overall; a couple of reds stood out and the dessert wines (Semillon, Muscat, Liqueur Verdelho) were wonderful. Good chance you might go there if you do go with the Boutique Wine tours company.
- Mount Pleasant - not that great in terms of service/the tour, but the Semillon was *very* good. They're open from 9-5 IIRC for tastings, but you need to be there specifically at 10 am if you want to do the winery tour.
- Tempus Two - went with a friend here, and this was amazing. It's got a pretty bad rep in terms of service/etc from a lot of websites/reviewers, but we went on a Tuesday morning and it was empty. Great one to one service, impromptu tour and fantastic wines. Worth going out of your way to see this place, and take your time - some of the wines are excellent (and they've got an incredible range - even 'Traminer, Pinot Gris and Zinfandel)
- Brokenwood - heard many good things about the wines here, so went on a separate trip here. Bit of a let down, as a number of their wines weren't available for tasting (particularly the Graveyard Vineyard wines, which are very well known), and there wasn't much there in terms of hospitality/service.
- Peterson's Champagne House (with the Boutique wines group) - group tastings with the company were very well organised, with some really nice sparkling wines. Quite a different experience in the Valley - if you're keen on sparkling wines, definitely worth checking out (and they also had a pretty good fortified Muscat).
Definitely would suggest going to Tempus Two if you can manage it - either speak to your tour group if you are going with one (and ensure you get a fair bit of time there - we took almost 2 hrs), and would give a thumbs up to Boutique Wine tours if you are considering it.
BTW, if you've got any further queries on my Hunter trip, just drop me an email (use salilbenegal at gmail dot com) and I'll be glad to help out.
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