Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On Thursday i went on a bus tour to the Hunter Valley Wineries. THe Hunter valley area is about 2hrs north of Sydney and is the big wine making area in New South Wales. Lindemanns in probably the most famous winery in this area. After leaving Sydney at 8am we stopped for morning tea by the Hawkesbury River and then carried on driving for another hour before turning off the highway into the Hunter Valley region.
The first winery we visited was Ivanhoes which is a small boutique winery and the wine can only be purchased here. We tried a couple of white and red wines, one rose, and one dessert wine. I dont like red wines but thought i would try them incase i liked these, but after the first sip the rest went in the waste bucket! The rose was the nicest.
Next we went to Golden Grape Est. We tried a few white and red wines, a port (which i liked) and then we tried some schnapps. The first was a butterscotch snhapps then a vodka based white chocolate one. This wasnt as chocolately as i was hoping! The last one we tried was called 'Dragons breath' and we all had to drink it at the same time. It is a chilil flavoured drink and was very hot and horrible! I could hear everyone saying that it was disgusting! To take away the heat we were given a little squirt of chocolate and cointreau sauce which was very nice. We had lunch in the restaurant here and then went to the third winery.
This was called Draytons. First we had a tour around the winemaming area, it is a small winery so the cellar area was quite small, nothing like the big ones ive seen in France. After the tour we tried white and red wines and a port, then a coconut and caramel schnapps and another white chocolate one!
NExt we went to HV gardens which is a little complex of shops and no gardens! went to a cheese shop to try some cheese, then a few of us went to BrokenWood winery where i tried some white wine. Then went to a chocolate shop where i bought some chocolate.
Then we drove a little down the road to go to the "smelly cheese shop", here we tried some different flavoured feta which was more of a philidelphia consistency. I bought some brie here. THere was another chocolate shop here too but didnt buy anything in this one. After here we headed back to Sydney.
After a winery tour i ended up with some cheese and chocolate. I would have liked to have visited Lindemanns or Rousemont just to say i had been there. There are numerous wineries in the HV and expect some of them must export back to England. I must remember to have a look in the supermarkets to find wines from the Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley or from Berri!
- comments