Hunter Valley Wine Tour

My wonderful wife got me an awesome set of presents for my 30th this year, one of which was a wine tour for when we arrived in Sydney. So finally after months of waiting the day finally came for the tour.

It was a fun filled day starting with a 7am pick up and ending with dinner at a Thai restaurant late evening.

Jason our tour guide was awesome! He was great with names and interacting with our group of 10. He had a story for just about everything and above all else was really knowledgeable about wines and the Hunter Valley region.

The wineries we visited almost exclusively sold only at the Cellar Door, meaning the wines cannot be purchased at regular outlets or via a major distributor.

The ones we visited were:

1. Tallavera Grove
2. Mount View Estate
3. De Iuliis
4. Ernest Hills Wines

Some interesting facts about wine that we picked up along the way:

• When judging wine, the criteria weighting is 15% sight, 35% smell, 50% taste
• Bottles with corks needs to stored flat so the cork stays moist, if it dries the cork may rot and let air in. Screw caps can be stored upright.
• Wine is best stored in a cool dark location with no vibrations and infrequent changes in temperature. Basement cold room = Good, Under Bed = Bad.
• Rose wines get their colour from the skin in the grapes, the longer the skin stays in the the richer the colour
• When purchasing wine read the label. The more specific the label (e.g. region, type of grape or barrel, yield, etc) the better the wine will likely be. The less specific the label the more likely it is from a lower quality mass producer.
• We also learned a lot more throughout the day, but hey after a couple of tastings the memory just ain't so good.

Now on to the pictures (the rest we'll post up on Facebook)

Jason our guide

Our Tour Group

The stash of purchases

Jaime stocking up for home and for a special someone who will remain unamed

Home vs. Home :)

Link to Jason's company: Wine Tours With Jason

Also, quote of the day, totally unrelated to wine, but applicable to just about everything: "If you want something done - give it to someone that is busy"

-Pri