The upcoming birthday of my friend Gautam along with a desire to spend a weekend away from Sydney in early August took us north towards Newcastle
The Hunter Valley, is one of the most visited wine regions in the world. Life began as a brutal colony here, it was only discovered because of one lieutenant Shortland from the early colony at Sydney was hunting for escaped convicts. As he sailed around the coastline, he saw an outflow of water and pursuing the same he discovered what is present Hunter Valley rich with cedar trees and coal. These were exactly the things the fledgling colony needed.But the Hunter was much too fertile to remain as a penal settlement and settler's soon arrived to take advantage of the area.
Its been aptly said that " The man who could sit under the shade of his own wine, with his wife and children about him and ripe clusters hanging within their reach, in such a climate as this and not feel the highest enjoyment, in incapable of happiness and does not know what the world means."
The valley is divided into regions - Upper and Lower, the Lower region in Pokolbin hosting most of the famous wineries the regions has to boast about. Whilst in pursuit of the Godly spirits (pun intended), a good starting point to commence your journey is Brooke road - there are so many notable wineries on either side of this road. Some of the famous and must visit wineries in Hunter are - Tempus Two, Drayton Family Wines, Mount Pleasant, Broken Wood, McGuigan and Audrey Wilkinson.
As for the wine itself, many grape varieties do well here, from classics like Cabernet Sauvignon to lesser known varieties like the white grape Verdelho, which at its best can have a taste like a refreshing fruit salad. But two varieties of grapes do outstandingly well here :- Shiraz and Semillon.
Our accommodation at Crowne Plaza was fantastic, our cottage overlooked a small pond which was part of the resort golf club. Our cottage was fully furnished and had two rooms, the resort has all the modern facilities along with with two excellent restaurants. Our first day was spend on wine tasting and buying couple of bottles of Moscato and Semillon for giving us company through the evening. I must say the Moscato from Tempus Two cellars is world class. The following day we went to the Cheese and Chocolate factory to buy authentic home made chocolates. Post which, my wife and I paid a visit to the famous Hunter Valley gardens and simply loved it all - 60 acres containing 10 distinctive gardens - the Rose Garden, dedicated to grandmothers - in a corkscrew design, the centre of which showed a grandmother surrounded by happy children and many roses encircling it. Off course it was the wrong time of the year, but their were still a few flowers hanging on and a lot of the northern hemisphere trees had lost their leaves. The Formal Garden featured yet more rose and topiared bushes, the Indian Mosaic garden had topiared elephants and interesting ground covers, as well as an Indian tea house on the lake's edge. The Chinese Moongate featured magnolias and camellias and weeping mulberries, Sunken Garden had a 10m waterfall and lovely garden beds, the Border garden contained formal hedging and fountains, the Italian Grotto Italian urns, citrus trees, the Oriental garden - Japanese Pagoda on the waterfront with beautiful bushes and grasses and finally, for children, the Storybook garden. This featured figures from nursery rhymes, the Mad Hatters Tea Party and all sorts of wonders to delight. We finished our visit with lunch on the cafe' veranda in the sunshine, overlooking the oriental lake and pagoda. Post this it was a drive through the Upper Hunter Valley, lovely farmland, horse studs, green paddocks and high rugged mountains in the distance. Most of the drive through areas we haven't been to before - always good to try the road less travelled back to Sydney...
