A tour to Hunter Valley
Yesterday ( Tuesday) we went on an organised wine tour of the Hunter Vallley wine region. It’s the main viticulture area of Australia boasting over 130 wineries.
I have to confess that I am not a enthusiast or regular drinker of Australian wine. A friend of mine who is deeply knowledgeable on wine said of it:
“It’s a bit like porn. There is a quick impact shot then it’s becomes all too dull.”
The Shiraz wine – is dare I say it – like the Aussies big, brash and unsubtle. In that vein, our travel guide greeted us with “What’s it like to spend all this money and lose?”
The remark was countered by hypocritical sangfroid “We are still enjoying the trip and your country.” (I thought “There goes your 10$ tip, mate …”).
It was a 2 hour trip scarcely punctuated by any silence from our loquacious driver who thought himself a bit of a comedian. At the comfort break I had to go into the bush on urgent business.
Our first stop was the Mount Pleasant winery.
We were given 10 wines to taste and I enjoyed the Mothervine Pinot Noir best. The price was between £20-30 and personally I would go for a top notch European wine for that. Remembering my friend’s words I thought the Semillons taste did not vary on the palette.
We next ate a most delicious meal at the Bimbadgen winery though in a perplexing system we could only have one glass of estate wine free.
Our Geordie fellow traveller, who knows the itinerary like the Bible, said we had paid for a tasting in her rather mournful voice.
No worries, as they say here.
We then went to Tyrrell’s Winery where an elderly taster who started with the inevitable Pom-bashing served up some delicious wines, one bottle of which he was foolish enough to leave on the table.
Another co-traveller and I partook freely. This was their premium Vat 1 Semillion costing £70 and went down very nicely.
By now the group was feeling merry and I detected the first note of a romance between two, one widower and one never married (but scarcely a spinster in demeanour), based on the industrial quantity of wine they had consumed.
Wine tasting can involve 20 glasses of wine, often without food, always with some trite comment. I prefer to glug and keep my counsel … and notes.
I fell asleep on the minibus back to the incessant commentary from the guide. My arrangements for the evening had been cancelled by the other party so somewhat forlornly I trudged the rainy streets to find a restaurant, any restaurant. Finding absolutely none open I returned to the hotel for a steak in the room watching a moderately interesting documentary on Prince Philip.