Hunter Valley

It was just fantastic!



We got up at 6am packed our bags, headed down to the bus station around 8am, and began our journey to Hunter Valley. It was only about a 2 hour bus ride, and I got a book from the library before we left that's called 101 questions, so we did that for most of the trip up there. We've been dating 5 years, but there was a lot of stuff we didn't know about each other. It was fun, at least I thought it was :-D



When we arrived at the hostel around 11 am, we checked in and walked around the grounds, had a cup of tea for like an hour, then got on a mini bus to start our wine tour. Our guide, Gordon, was the only person on duty at the hostel (just to give you an idea of how small this hostel was) and we had a total of 17 people in our mini bus. Gordon has worked in the Hunter Valley for quite some time, befriended a lot of the workers/families from the wineries, so we got to visit a few of the very small boutique wineries. He picked each winery for a different reason, the first place was family owned, and because of that the prices are a bit lower. They ferment in the "traditional" way with wooden barrels, and we got quite a range of wine to taste. Kent found this absolutely amazing Shiraz. When ever I drink wine, there has always, ALWAYS been this bitter after taste, not this stuff. It is the smoothest wine I have ever drank before. so we got one bottle of that. Then Gordon took us to a cheese shop to taste cheese......OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! Australia specializes in soft cheeses, there were two kinds that kent and wanted to get soooo bad. they are $14-$16 a jar, im seriously thinking about going back to buy them. and then there was a chocolate shop, bread and olive oil tasting, and this jam cart. i was in heaven. Kelli, you would have died had you tried these cheeses, SOOOOOO GOOD. they put gregs cheese sauce to shame! So after i pried myself away from the cheese we all got back on the bus and headed to winery number 2.

This place fermented it's wine in steel barrels, i guess it makes the flavor a little truer to the fruits used. The guy that guided us through the wine was good friends with Gordon, so we tried a LOT there. they had two wines i had never heard of before. a pinot rose and sangiovesse (sp?). Both were very good. We only got the pinot rose, kind wish we had purchased both, but i think we can find this particular winery's wine in the shops in Syndey.

Then we stopped for lunch and went to the tempest two winery. wasn't impressed with anything they had. Then we moved on to our final winery. As Gordon said, he didn't pick this place for the quality of the wine, he really like the owners and the land. It was just gorgeous!!!!!! and the guy that owned it was named Diamond and was a horse whisperer.

I can't say enough about this trip, the price of that package was a steal and we have some great memories. eventually i will post pictures....

also, this is zach braff's blog. i find it halarious. http://www.zachbraff.com/