Hunter Valley Wineries!

Friday 22 December

01 Laurieton!

Yet another early start - we grabbed a quick breakfast before heading off to the first port of call - Laurieton.  Anything for a laugh.  The final destination for today was the Hunter Valley so we hopped back on to the highway and made really good time.

We had decided to head for the Upper Hunter Valley as although the majority of the wineries were in the Lower Hunter Valley, we had found a great place to stay and it also meant we could go to the Rosemount Estate which we thought would be quite interesting.  So, we flew past the signs for the LHV and drove on for 100km until we reached our destination.  However, on closer inspection we realised that maybe we would have been better off staying elsewhere as the Rosemount cellar door had recently closed and also our plan to do a guided tour of the wineries would probably have been better in the lower valley...so we turned around and went all the way back to Cessnock.  Oh well.

02 Wine tasting at 10.30am!

On arrival trawled around a few motels and the YHA hostel (which was ridiculously expensive) and eventually settled on a place which was a relief after what had actually been quite a long day.  That evening we booked our tour of the wineries for the following day and had a very healthy tea of takeaway pizza. 

Saturday 23 December

Our bus was arriving at 9.45am so we had a leisurely breakfast.  We were collected on time and by 10.30am we were at the first winery of the day (Audrey Wilkinson - one of the original boutique wineries with a beautiful estate at the top of the valley) sampling their goods!  Crazy.  We tried about 9 different wines up there and decided we should pace ourselves otherwise we would be in a right mess by the end of the day.  We then went to 2 more wineries that morning (Lucy's Run where the merlot was dee-licious and Ernest Hill Wines) before stopping for lunch...and a non-alcoholic drink!

03 View across the Hunter Valley

During the afternoon we visited two more wineries - Iron Gate Estate where they also made a sweet merlot which was quite interesting and then Ivanhoe.  Last stop of the day was at a cheese factory.

Great day out.  Needless to say we did buy a couple of bottles for Christmas - rude not to really!

That evening we had a quiet time just chilling and watching Blues Brothers with a glass of red and some rather tasty cheese to postpone the hangover for a little longer.....

04 View from the last cellar door we visited

05 The product of a hard day's work....