Hunter Valley - Wine Country

The road to Hunter Valley and to Cessnock town was an adventure in itself.  We weaved our way through the Blue Mountains, passed through many quaint towns and were blown away by the scenery we met along the way.  One particular town, Mount Wilson, which was off the main road, had a fantastic lookout point that was reminiscent of the scene in Pride & Prejudice, where Elizabeth Bennett is standing on a cliff edge with the wind whirling around her!  When we got to Wiseman’s Ferry, we got the winch ferry across the river and after that the real fun began.  We soon came to an unsealed road, something which we weren’t told about or read about in the guide book.  Unsealed roads are basically gravel and dirt roads and are a real no-no in a rental car in Australia.  There was no turning back though because it would have put a further 3 hours on our journey and it was already getting late.  We hoped that it wouldn’t last too long though.  After 10 kilometres, we came to the tiny town of St. Albans.  We breathed a sigh of relief as we got back on the tarmac road.  This however, was incredibly short-lived as no sooner had we left the town, were we back on the dirt road again.  This time, the road went on the 25 kilometres, before we met the main highway.  What should have taken us half an hour, took us well over an hour.  We did see some incredible sights on the way though and the kangaroos that took a break from their evening graze to stare at us as we trundled along was definitely the highlight.  We arrived in Cessnock just as darkness fell and we were able to assess that the damage on the car was no more than a lot of dirt, muck and dust caked on.  A simple car wash would do the trick.

A Pride & Prejudice moment

View down to Wiseman's Ferry

The winch ferry

Lots of wildlife ahead

Cessnock and the Lower Hunter Valley region has a variety of accommodation options, ranging from 5 star resorts to luxury rooms right in the heart of the idyllic vineyards themselves.  We were staying above a pub.  While our room was neat and clean, it was devoid of any luxuries and we struggled to understand how the owners had the cheek to charge $95 for our Friday night accommodation.  Unsurprisingly we are still searching for that answer.  Despite our exorbitant lodgings, our arrival did happen to coincide with the pub’s weekly Schnitty night.  Schnitty, for us uninformed folk, is a schnitzel and a popular dish in Australia.  For $10 we got ourselves delicious chicken schnitzel and a variety of side orders – a bargain!

We had booked ourselves on a tour of the vineyards in the region and we greeted the following morning by a droll but friendly Aussie called Ian, who was to be our bus driver for the day.  He told us that if we were anything like that group of Irish people he had the previous day, we were going to be absolutely tanked by the end of the tour!  I think he might have figured us out a bit too soon and he really had his work cut out for him when he collected four middle aged women who were on a birthday weekend.  They were hilariously raucous and provided the entertainment for the day, with their ridiculous jokes and constant cackling which grew ever louder as the day wore on.

Cheers darlin'!

Across the vineyards

We visited five vineyards in total.  The first vineyard was a boutique winery that only sold its wine from the cellar door, i.e. you can’t buy it in shops.  During this visit we got very detailed and interesting information on how the wine is made, what wines were good with what foods and instruction on how to taste the wine properly to appreciate its full flavour.  It was here that we tasted what was to be the nicest wine of the day, an 11 year old Merlot.  It was delicious and we are still kicking ourselves that we didn’t treat ourselves to a bottle.  We also visited more famous wineries such as Draytons and McGuigans, whose produce you can buy in Ireland.  We sampled about six or seven wines at each tasting.  There were red wines and white wines and in some vineyards we were given samples of port, liquer, sparkling and dessert wines.  We liked some of them and we disliked others and while we certainly won’t claim ourselves to be experts in this area now, we came away a little more informed and a little light-headed!

Vineyard Views

Outside McGuigan wines