Hunter Valley (March 17, 2012)

Hunter Valley is known as one of the premier wine regions in Australia. Before leaving for Australia, I spent time researching possible trips I wanted to take during the semester. Hunter Valley seemed like the perfect place – a close location and lots of wine. I love planning trips, but knowing nothing about Hunter Valley, but seeing as Hunter Valley is about 6 hours by public transportation from Wollongong and the area is pretty hard to get around without a car, we decided to take a Colorful Trips tour leaving out of Sydney. Colorful Trips targets a younger market of travelers, meaning our tour was made up of twelve 20-somethings and not any snooty wine connoisseurs who actually sniff their wine and know what it’s supposed to smell like.      

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The drive from Sydney to Hunter Valley was 2 hours and very rainy. The rain had subsided once we arrived and the rolling hills of grapevines looked picturesque under a blanket of fog. Our first stop was Drayton’s Family Winery, one of the oldest in the area. In addition to the reds and whites, we tasted a couple port wines and chocolate liqueurs – all of which were a puckering sweet like nothing I’d ever tasted before. After our first tasting, we had a BBQ sausage lunch prepared by our tour guide Wazzo. The highlight of lunch was getting to try a taste of kangaroo meat. It was hard not too feel bad eating it, but it tasted just like steak.

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Our next winery was McGuigan’s Wines. Here we sat on stools at a round table while our host went around and poured each wine and explained its flavor. Here you definitely felt like a classy wine connoisseur. The most interesting thing I learned about Australian wine is that a rose is not nearly as sweet as we would think it to be in the US. Another fun fact is that many of their sweet whites are variations of a moscato, a wine that is not commonly thought of as high-test in the US. All the wines we sampled were available for purchase and I hoped to buy a bottle to bring back as a present to my parents, but seeing as I was almost over the weight limit on both my suitcases I brought with me to Australia, I figured a bottle of wine might be too heavy – sorry mom and dad!

The other stops on our tour were the Hunter Valley shopping area, a collection of cute shops and candy stores, and the Blue Tongue Brewery. At the brewery, you had the option to sample beers, but we chose to forgo the $10 sampling fee and continue testing wines. While we were there, a bride was arriving for her wedding reception. Hunter Valley is apparently a popular place to get married – getting married at a vineyard seems like a fairytale to me! Before we left the valley for our two hours rainy drive home, we stopped at a scenic overlook to sample some strange cheeses.

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Overall, the trip to Hunter Valley was a fun excursion and I would highly recommend it to those looking for a more laid back adventure. If I ever become a snooty wine connoisseur, I would love to go back to Hunter Valley on a sunny day and do more exploring in the area. Though next time, I’ll pass on the kangaroo meat.


Location: Hunter Valley, Australia

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