This past Sunday was Canada Day, and thanks to Andrew and Stephen, we were lucky enough to spend it in Hunter Valley on a private wine tour.
Hunter Valley, Australia's oldest wine region, is located
approximately 2 hours north of Sydney. The region is home to several internationally renowned wineries such as Wyndham Estate, Lindeman's, Drayton's, and McWilliam's.
The guys put us up at the
Hermitage Lodge in their Pepper Tree spa suite. The accommodations were very nice (we had a jet tub
and fireplace!) and offered a great view of the Hermitage estate vineyard from our private balcony.
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| Pepper Tree Spa Suite | | View of Hermitage Estate vineyards |
Our private wine tour was with
Hunter Valley Private Tours and it was an exceptionally awesome tour! We visited 4 different wineries during our tour: Mountain View Estate, Irongate Estate, Tulloch, and Calais Estate. Several of these wineries are boutique wineries and their wines can only be purchased at their estate. Additionally, all of them source their grapes within Hunter Valley exclusively - meaning you get a true taste of Hunter Valley wine. We also visited Peterson House,which produces only sparkling wines and champagnes. This was a first for us, and we quite enjoyed it!
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| Our own private tour van! |
Of all the wineries, Irongate Estate stood out the most for us due to its use of classical wine production methods and processes. They took their time in explaining each of the wines in detail and provided some small nibbles of food that paired very well with the wines. The owner of Irongate was also nice enough to take us on a private tour of his winery!!
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| Nine very tasty bottles of wine! | | Inside Irongate. The largest tank is a classic Italian
style red wine tank that plunges wine. |
All of the wineries in the Hunter Valley experienced a poor season this year. The high levels of rain back in January and February (right before harvest) made for over-saturated crops which, unfortunately, results in very poor red varietals. As a result, many of the wineries just leave the grapes on the vines, allowing them to fall to the ground naturally, and thereby provide nourishment for next year's crops. It was kinda neat to see shriveled up grapes (effectively raisins) still sitting on the vines.
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| Shriveled up Shiraz grapes |
During our tour around Hunter Valley, we also stopped at the Hunter Valley Olive Center and the Chocolate Center. At the Olive Center, we were able to taste some very unique preserves and chutneys, flavour infused varieties of olive oil, and lots other tasty sauces.
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| Lots of tasty stuff to sample! | | Sampling some olive oil |
The Chocolate Center was located on site with Peterson's (champagne house). The chocolate was a nice compliment to the bubbly!
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| Ready for chocolate! | | Inside the Chocolate Center |
Half way through our wine tour, we stopped at The Muse restaurant for a fantastic lunch. It was so delicious! Blair had the chicken and Stacy had the brisket, which was followed up with creme brulee for dessert!
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| Muse Restaurant |
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| Mmm.. Pan Friend Crusted Chicken! | | Beef Brisket! | | Creme Brulee |
All in all, the wine tour was fantastic! Being able to sample endless amounts of wine-- all whilst knowing you have a private driver -- is the best way to tour a wine region. ;-)
On the drive back home to Canberra the next day, we stopped by Hunter Valley's only Brewery -
The Hunter Beer Company. Even though it was fairly early in the morning, we were still able to sample a few of their beers and get an overview of the history of the brewery.
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| Hunter Valley Beer Company! Mmmmm .. beer! | | Sampling beer at 10AM - nothing wrong with that! |
Well, that's all for now. We hope that everyone back in Canada had a fantastic Canada Day!
