On Friday I took a bus trip to the Hunter Valley wine region. The Rover bus picked me up at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel at about 8.30 for the two and a half hour trip to the Hunter Valley.
The trip didn't seem long since I occupied myself on my Blackberry, slept and read my material on all the wineries. Once arriving I was dropped off at the current location of the shuttle bus to join the tour in progress.
Normally the shuttle roams the valley making stops at each winery about every half hour. But today there are only 6 of us using the bus so we are getting a bit more personal service. The driver is just taking us around to where we want to go within each area.
Before lunch we hit a champagne house and 3 wineries. The nice thing about the wineries here are that they all provide free tastings and generous sips from multiple bottles. The oddest thing I had to sip were some red wine champagnes at Petersons Champagne House. I don't know if I really liked them. Because of all the "sips" before we even get to lunch I feel very "happy". Unfortunately I really didn't like any of the wines I was tasting.
At about 12.45pm the driver drops us at Hunter Valley Gardens for lunch and asks us to be back to the bus in a half hour because he wants to take us to Tyrrells winery for their daily tour at 1.30pm. Lunch is a bit rushed, the driver recommended a sandwich place named "The Chocolate Factory" which has good sandwiches. I went to the shop, placed my order and went to my table but my sandwich never arrived. After 20 minutes I went back inside and asked them what happened and at that point they said it was ready. Since I had to be at the bus in 5 minutes I asked them to wrap it "to go". I don't know why it took so long to make a sandwich. I grabbed my lunch and went back to the bus. The driver took us to Tyrrells and we signed in for the tour.
Tyrrells facility in the Hunter Valley is their original location and
an "old world" wine making operation. Of course, Tyrrells is a big Australian wine company and even though the Hunter Valley location is "old world", somewhere they have a big facility that produces mass marketed wines for Australia and export. It's all marketing.
At Tyrrells we are lead on an hour long tour which is lead by a nice a humourous guy from Scotland. He is very well versed on the history of Tyrrells and the process of winemaking. We learn everything from how grapes are picked and pressed to how barrels are used in the process.
After the tour we are lead into the tasting room and we sample about 10 wines. The "samples" were actually very generous pours and by the end I am nearly drunk. I buy a bottle of a newly released Shiraz which doesn't taste great now, but should be a lot better if I keep it a year or two.
The bottle of wine cost $22 (US$17.60) which reminds me to mention that most Australian wine I priced was actually more expensive then in the USA. I guess it's because of the Australian tax structure.
After getting tipsy at Tyrrells I head to the bus and eat the sandwich I got earlier. I think I should have ate it before Tyrrells, then the wine may not have hit me so hard.
From Tyrrells the driver takes us to McGuigan where there is a winery and a cheese factory. Here we sample a number of delicious cheeses and sip a few more uninspiring wines. I wish we would have come here for lunch because they had a number of mixed cheese platters to nibble on.
After McGuigan the driver takes a few of us back to Hunter Valley Gardens to meet our return bus to Sydney. The bus leaves on time and I sleep most of the way back to Sydney. I woke up with a horrible headache and although I slept part of the way, the return journey seems like an eternity.
In all it was a good day costing $90 (US$72) for transportation. Unfortunately with the bus schedules I really didn't get to see as many wineries as I would have liked. I don't even think I saw 25% of the wineries that are represented in the valley but I did get a good representation of what the area was all about. The cenery is also very beautiful, as you would expect from a grape growing region. I think if I had a car I could have seen far more wineries but it would have been impossible to drive after all the "sampling".
It was a good, but very long, day and I am glad I had a chance to see the valley.
Blogging from Australia with Blackberry and Cingular Wireless.
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