Like the Blue Mountain trip, my colleague and I joined a day tour. The day tour costs about AUD85 including lunch. Actually if you want to save money, it is much cheaper to rent a car and drive there, wine tasting is free anyway. However, you may not be able to enjoy the wine if you drove there.
We expected the tour to be in a group of 14 people. When the coach came then only we found out that we only had 6 people that day. We first stopped by the river side to have some biscuit and coffee together. The weather looked nice but it was really chilly there.
A duck couple
The journey from Sydney to Hunter Valley took about 2 hours. Before we headed to the wineries, we first went for some cheese tasting at a shop called Smelly Cheese.
Inside Smelly Cheese
The first winery we visited was De Bortoli Wines. Established in 1928, De Bortoli Wines is still family owned and proudly Australian. We tasted some white and red wine, including semillon, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, merlot etc. I acted like a wine connoisseur although I didn’t really know how to tell between a good and bad wine.
There is no grape because of winter
We then went to the next winery – Peterson House. Peterson House is a maker of Premium Sparkling Wines, by the traditional methode champenoise process. There, again we tasted some white, red, sparkling and dessert wine. I started to feel drunk.
Lunch at Peterson House
We had lunch at Peterson House and had a chat with each other before going to another winery.
Tempus Two is a winery famous for its attention to detail, including exclusive imported bottles, pewter labels, hand plunging of reds etc. But I was more impressed with the contemporary design of the winery itself. This time I did not enjoy the wine tasting much but paying more attention to the building and its interior.
Can you believe that this is actually a winery?
Our last stop was at the Iron Gate estate. This winery has a much traditional building. Again, we tasted some wines and were given a quick behind the scene tour.
Iron Gate Estate
Grapes going through fermentation process in these stainless steel tanks
After 4 rounds of wine tasting, we had almost 30 glasses (1/3 of a glass) of wine. It was quite surprising that I was still standing. Normally I only drink 1 or 2 types of wine at one time and had no chance to compare one to another. This tour didn’t make me a wine connoisseur but at least I know what is a Semillon, a Chardonnay and a Shiraz. It’s really a good experience.
I prefer white wine to red wine. What about you?
3 comments:
hmmmmmm I am getting to like Australia.. :)
White wine! Knowing Malaysia's weather, I like to drink it chilled. Chardonnay, semi-sweet dessert wines are my favourite. What's the alcohol % of Australian wines like?
Didn't check the % but I prefer Semillon, milder compared to Chardonnay.
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