Don’t know which wine you like best? Well… I highly
recommend you to book a ‘wine tasting tour’, it is exactly what we did
when we were in the Hunter Valley region.
There are many wine tasting tours available within Hunter Valley but we
just randomly picked ‘Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tours’ and I’m so glad
that we did.
All bookings are processed online, where you complete a
booking form to secure your seat(s) – payments
are collected on the day of the tour, they accept credit cards or cash.
You may choose a ‘full day’ or ‘half day’ tour, we have chosen the full
day ‘Hunter Valley Wine Tour with Café Lunch Included’ for the cost of
$100 per head.
This tour included four different
wineries (one was commercial) and visits to ‘Smelly Cheese Shop’ and
‘Hunter Chocolate Shop’. We were collected at the destination we
requested to be picked up and were greeted by our friendly driver
‘Bill’, a polite, happy person ‘at-your-service’ guy! Pick
up times are between 9.15am to 10am.
There were 12 of us on this tour, a nice amount of people where you
don’t waste too much time waiting on others and start the tour in no
time at all. Our pick-up vehicle was the latest Mercedes Benz mini-coach
– the drive
was so comfortable and well air-conditioned.
You do not know which
wineries you will be visiting until you get picked up, this is when Bill
told us the names of the wineries we will be visiting and also gave us a
brief history of The Hunter Valley region and
the wineries along the way.
Our first stop was at a local winery
‘Capercaillie’, where we were introduced to a man who looked after us
and gave us the history of the reds and white wines, we were given a
list of the wines he was talking about and samples of
the wine that was on that list.
There was a jug of water on the table
to rinse your palette so you can enjoy the true flavour of the next wine
without any confusion of previous wines.
We also had some cheese and
crackers to compliment the red wine – he told
us to try the red wine on its own, then with cheese to taste the
difference and you definitely do notice the difference!
He gave us
another red to taste on its own then he sprayed some lemon juice and yet
again, the taste was so different yet so refreshing
with the squirt of some lemon juice – give it a go, next time you drink
a red, it’s quite an amazing experience and a clever little trick.
He
was very informative and full of knowledge of the reds and whites and
quite the entertainer – we had many laughs.
After his speech, he gave us the rundown of the wines that are on
special to buy and left it with us whether we would want to make
purchases or not.
By then, with a generous amount of wine already
consumed, we as a group felt relaxed and happier. Then back
onto the coach with Bill, more history and telling us a bit about the
next winery stop 'Leogate Estate Wines' as well as selecting your lunch
from the given menu.
The lunch menu had a good selection of food to
choose from, you have a choice from beef burger,
salad, quiche, risotto or fillet fish accompanied with warm sourdough
bread with dukkha, olive oil and caramalised balsamic.
Again, our next
stop venue was pretty amazing with knowledgeable staff and more wines to
taste and a much happier group with the giggles
while Bill processed our lunch.
I was so glad that our third stop was
lunch – needed some food and a great opportunity for toilet breaks (even
though you do have toilet breaks at each venue) and have a breather of
fresh country air.
We stopped at Epicure Café
for lunch and this is when Bill asked for payments for the tour. Lunch
was served almost immediately, we had 50 minutes for our lunch break and
to enjoy the view and back onto the coach again for the next two winery
visits 'McGuigan' the commercial winery
and 'Mount View' as our last stop - Bill saved the best winery for
last.
With breathtaking views of the vineyards and a choice to drink the
wine indoors or outdoors - truly amazing. They nominated staff to give
us a talk and history of the wineries and their
wines were all knowledgeable, friendly and happy to answer questions. I
really came out of this tour with more knowledge and appreciation of
wines.
Then to finish off the day, we visited ‘Smelly Cheese Shop’ where
we had an opportunity to taste local and imported
cheeses – all delicious! And of course our last stop ‘Hunter Chocolate
Shop’, again we had chocolate samples – you can’t go wrong with
chocolates.
Of course, you had opportunities to make purchases at each
venue you visited, where Bill stored your purchases,
he even had an esky to store your cheese(s) in his coach and handed
your goods back to you after he dropped you off at your venue.
Bill
looked after us real well and handed complimentary bottles of water to
be sure that we were kept hydrated throughout our
tour. This is the best way to experience the Hunter wine region.
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