Hunter Valley Wine Tasting

Note: Despite the title of this blog referring to wine tasting, there are very few wine tasting photos here. This might be down to levels of inebriation. This might be due to the fact that wine isn't as cute as koalas. It's largely down to both these facts. 

Our day in the Hunter Valley started bright and early when our pickup, a droll, short Australian man answering to the name of Sam Collins, arrived in his yellow Kangariffic Tours mini-bus. He regaled us with stories of a life past, of construction work in London, tour leading in Europe and packing it all in, returning to Oz and buying a bus to zip people around the Hunter Valley. 

The construction world's loss was most definitely our gain. Between cracking a wry joke and giving us a play-by-play of Sydney politics, the day was entertaining. Most notably, every stop included a pre-stop anthem, an homage to the music, culture and cheese of the day; first stop--Skippy the Bush Kangaroo; Wine stop, Red, Red Wine; Hunter Valley hill interlude, The Hills are Alive (with the Sound of Music). Best tour ever. 

First Stop: Walkabout Wildlife Park

Smartly, Sam took us first to a local wildlife sanctuary where a Texan disguised with an Australian accent took us through the wildlife of New South Wales. We got up close and personal with a koala (decidedly not a bear) and her baby. 

After sufficient oohing and ahhing, we learned about the strange rules of interacting with the nature. In the state of NSW, one is not legally allowed to snuggle a koala in a wildlife park. So oohing and ahhing allowed, snuggling, NO:

After sufficient ogling, we moved onto the staple of Australian wildlife. Cue more oohing and ahhing:

And that's not even to mention the smoking emus:

And the holding of snakes:

And finally, a wallaby! I'm not ashamed to admit that my only other experience with this animal was from Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life. In all honesty, I wasn't sure they were even a real animal. But they exist, they exist!

Second Stop: The Wine!

And here begins the interlude of wine tasting to which I clearly enjoyed so much that I took no photographic evidence. Our man in the yellow van asked for wine drinking recommendations and because we were looking for a stunning bottle of sparkling to take for a wedding gift, we were taken to the heaven-sent Leogate Winery, an award winning boutique winery that supplies Qantas first class with its tipples. We started slowly and regained an appreciation for Chardonnay. From there, things got fuzzy. There was white wine and fizz and rose and red. The shop was particularly remarkable.

Laden with bottles and once pointed towards the door, we made our way to a second and third winery, both delicious but decidedly less exciting than the first. But still, the vistas were impressive. 

Next Stop: Roche Estates
Our next stop, a much needed lunch break, took us to the famous Hunter Valley Smelly Cheese Shop. And boy was it smelly. And delicious.

Here, we grappled with the ultimate Aussie bastardisation, the Aussie Burger: a beef patty sharing its bun with pickled beetroot, grilled pineapple, a fried egg and spicy chili mayo. Mine was modified with a vegetarian patty and no egg. I must admit, it was delicious. But that might have been the wine talking. 

Final Stop: Potters' Brewery
And because a day drinking tour should always end with alcohol, our final stop took us to a local microbrewery, where we lined up a flight of beers that made me unable to feel my face anymore.

We arrived back in Sydney, passing Hugh Jackman's former school, just in time for rush hour and a little worse for the wear. Nothing a little nap couldn't solve.