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.
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.
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.
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