February 25
Cessnock
Some rain overnight but there was bright sunshine by breakfast time. This was the start of a very hard day. On schedule, just before 09.30, the minibus from Two Fat Blokes arrived to collect me and then wandered off to Pokolbin to collect about nine others. This turned out to be a really eclectic group of people. There was a chap, originally from Glasgow, with his Australian wife, his Mother & his sister. There were three girls (ladies?) of Indian ethnicity, mainly raised in Singapore. One of them had been at Leeds University but 30 years after me! Finally, there were two girls (ladies?) one Hungarian & one of Ghanaian origin, who may or may not have been a couple and who lived in Sydney.
The combination worked excellently and the party buzzed throughout. This was aided by the driver, an old hand at this game & his temporary assistant, a guy who had lived in the valley most of his life, worked in a bottling plant but was short of work & looking for a possible career change. They were both very good.
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We started at Mistletoe Wines, a small family concern, where we tasted about seven wines. All were good but none were available other than at the cellar door.
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From there, we drove a short distance to a small building run by the Two Fat Blokes business, where we tasted another seven wines which were matched with cheeses. This was interesting in that the wines improved with the cheese and vice versa.
The next stop was Hunters Dream, an old vineyard taken over originally by a Chinese couple as a home for Chinese health products. It was then converted back into being a vineyard, albeit one with large herb & spice gardens etc.The shop, housed in a spectacular modern building with a beautiful feature window, sold a mix of oriental health products and wine. We tasted another half dozen wines & were then served with a packed lunch on the patio. |
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Star of the show was a reasonably elderly border collie, Wan Cai, who scrounged happily while we ate. I bought a couple of nice tasting glasses. I just hope I can get them back to the UK safely. (I did.)
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We moved on to The Wine House, a specialist tasting room, where we had another half dozen wines from a number of local vineyards.
Finally, on the wine front, we had another wine matching session, this time with chocolate. This was at Glandore Wines, noted for their Chardonnay. I think I would have preferred to taste the wines & then to have the chocolates with coffee. It was an interesting experiment, however, and both wine and chocolate were good. This winery had a couple of dogs, both sheep dogs of one sort or another, who kept us entertained.
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The final stop, just in case we needed another drink, was the Hunter Valley
Brewery. By this time I was feeling a little fragile - I think most people
were - so only managed a couple of small beers. I think this was probably
more than most of the others. It was, however, a good place to chill out.
Around 17.00, the party broke up and we were returned to our various hotels. It had been a very good tour. Definitely to be recommended. I collapsed on my bed for an hour to recover from the excessive amounts of food & alcohol that I had consumed. It should be noted that the tastings were all tiny measures so I probably hadn't consumed that much!
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Once again, dinner was at Pedens Hotel. A pork chop, this time, with a light beer. It was OK but not as good as last night's steak. More serious alcohol wouldn't have been a good idea.