The Hunter Valley wine tour

My first visit to Australia was with an old friend from university who has acquired an enormous knowledge about wine. In selecting wine during our travels, we stuck to three regions: Barossa, Margaret River and McLaren Vale. Mention of the Hunter Valley normally received a pained look.

Now living in Sydney, it’s hard to ignore this wine region and curiosity finally got the better of me.

The Hunter Valley actually has two main industries – wine and coal. Since the wine attracts tourism, I guess that would make a third. With the coal industry being a major opponent to the emissions trading scheme which was recently rejected in government this past week, I was envisioning HV to be a hill-stripped setting for an increasing fossil fuel-dependent world.

The Hunter Valley village centre.

But not at all. The wine region is kept separate and since I only visited for a day, there was no time to delve into local politics. There was wine to drink.

So, how do you visit the HV when you want to go to a number of places (which requires a motor vehicle) and sample the local drink (which contains alcohol)? Sign up for a bus tour. You don’t need to worry about driving, you can take as little or as many friends you like, and if you’re in a tour group you know you’ll all get along because you all like wine. The only downside is that the tour leaves at 8am so you need to prepare yourself for an entire day of drinking. There are worse things.

I chose the Boutique Wine Tour company which promised local knowledge and a customised itinerary on request. Our tour guide was named Steve and he certainly provided both. I had done very little research before embarking on the trip but did have a list of places to see and to avoid. I ran those by Steve and he did a very good job at accommodating. Since I clearly didn’t know the HV and really not too much about wine, it was best to leave the itinerary planning up to him but I couldn’t resist having a nose at a HV guide and map. He was very gracious.

There are a lot of boutique wineries in HV and even the larger places have award-winning wine so you are pretty safe in your selection. What I hadn’t anticipated was the limitation in grape varieties. When asked what wines I like, I would think pinot noir, pinot grigio and perhaps even zinfandel. None of these are in HV. The HV is quite well-known for the types of wine I generally stay away from – chardonnay and shiraz. While I am not a big white wine drinker (pinot grigio aside), I learned last summer that it gets way too hot in Sydney to drink red so I gradually adapted. In preparation for this upcoming summer season, I know I need to broaden my palette and am determined to approach an Australian white with the same appreciation as I would a Sea Smoke Botella.

So where did we go? With a little over 100 wineries, we went to four. Two are relatively new and are gaining recognition as ones to look out for (Iron Gate Estate and Ernest Hill), one is well-established as well as organic (Tamburlaine) and one also well-established and tipped to be having an exceptional year (Pepper Tree).

The very charming Ernest Hill.

In terms of atmosphere, Ernest Hill was the best with a welcoming down-home feel. It’s a very lovely farmhouse with a big, front porch on a rolling landscape with a lake and surrounded by old eucalyptus trees. Pepper Tree was a close second but a bit too much on the posh and perfect side. Iron Gate had a very high architectural standard, but too similar to what you would come across in Napa Valley with terra cotta tiling and sterility. Tamburlaine was very relaxed, a little too much so, but when you have wine that good, it doesn’t matter and they are one of the few wineries that makes its money through its wine club.

Both Tamburlaine and Pepper Tree have 5-star ratings by James Halliday, and the other two have promising reviews. Since I am not a wine expert, I can only say I was very impressed with the quality of the wine. Of course there were some I didn’t like, but felt spoilt for choice on a whole.

You might be wondering why the high praise in HV wine when I first mentioned my dislike of the wine varieties on offer. Well, again, I am not a wine expert. However, I like wine, especially when it’s good. If you go straight to the source, no matter what variety, it most likely is going to be very good and if you ask some questions, you’re likely to even come across some excellent bottles.

So this is what I came home with:
Whites
2009 ‘Cyril’ Semillon, Ernest Hill
2009 Wrattonbully Pinot Gris, Pepper Tree
2008 Verdelho, Hunter Valley NSW, Tamburlaine
2005 Wrattonbully Chardonnay, Pepper Tree

Reds (sorry, couldn’t resist)
2008 ‘Dam’ Merlot, Ernest Hill
2007 The Gravels Wrattonbully Shiraz Viognier, Pepper Tree
2002 Cabernet Sauvignon, Orange, NSW, Tamburlaine
2002 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, Pepper Tree

Why so many bottles you ask? It occurred to me during this trip that when the tour finished, I was going straight to Sydney where I live and will likely live for another year. That is a lot of time for drinking wine. Also, wines in the HV range $20-25 for a white and $25-$32 for a red. That’s about the same price for a decent bottle at the local wine shop and these wines I’ve tasted and know I like. The tour cost $105 which included being driven 1-1/2 hours outside Sydney in a comfortable mini-van with lots of capacity for carrying what we bought so what was I waiting for? I grabbed the opportunity to stock up. After all, spring begins next week and I don’t want to be caught out without a decent white.

Wineries visited (in order):
Iron Gate Estate
Tamburlaine
Hunter Valley Cheese Co (for cheese)
Pepper Tree
Ernest Hill

Tour:
Boutique Wine Tours