Hunter Valley Wine Tasting

Somehow, over the years, drinking wine has become synonymous with sophistication. Beer is seen as the uncouth working class man’s drink, rum the throat-stripping tipple of the burly sailor, and gin the last refuge of the depressed housewife. But wine, glorious wine is elevated to a far higher platform. It is what intellectuals sup while they are discuss intricate points of philosophy. It is what the French will fight to the death over in order to stop an identical foreign product being called by the same name. It is what the rich and powerful will spend thousands on, and then leave in a cellar for years.

Of course, for most of us, a cellar is where you keep a rusting old bike, and maybe a bag of cement. And, while many of us may be partial to the odd drop of wine, since going backpacking, standards have had to drop through financial constraints.

Which is why, of course, many of us can be seen, in lieu of a good night out, clutching a box of plonk that defies all categorisation. OK, so it may be the absolute dregs, but at least it’s cheap.

Depending on traffic, the Hunter Valley is an hour-and-a-half to two hours north of the city, and it is one of the world’s most famous wine growing regions.

This is not without good reason too – around 140 wineries cram themselves into this tiny corner of the globe, and with so many, competition is fierce. So fierce, in fact, that most of them are quite happy to let Joe and Jane Public to come and taste wine for free.

The Hunter Valley itself looks rather English. It’s all very rolling hills and pastures, and if you’re lucky enough to arrive on a nasty day, you’ll get the authentic grey skies as well. Most of the wineries – or at least their tasting centres – are based around Pokolbin. Now, on the map Pokolbin looks like a fairly major population centre. This is a cunning trick. Realistically it is two or three shops, surrounded by loads and loads and vines.

Before arriving there, it is difficult to imagine how much the grape-growing takes over the landscape, but as you head down Broke Road from Cessnock, it’s just vineyard after vineyard. There’s something fairly ruthless about it all.

However, with them all in close proximity, you can do a great big tour of the tasting rooms, cramming in seven or eight in a day if you’re really organised. This, of course, means that by teatime you can be exceptionally merry.

Whilst many wines are excellent, it goes without saying that a lot will not be to your taste or are average at best. You’ll be able to buy something of similar standard in a city bottle shop at half the price. However, if you go to enough wineries (and two or three should do the trick), then you are bound to find something that really makes you go: “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Want that one!”

The general rule of thumb is that the more wine you drink, the better it tastes. This is not really a coincidence, and it takes either a will of iron or a wallet of destitution to avoid buying a couple of bottles to take home with you.

Whether you manage to keep your money in your pocket or not, the Hunter makes for an excellent day trip, weekend break or short jaunt. There’s absolutely no way that you can pretend that you’re going to have a bit of a detox while you’re up there, but as a winter warmer, then you’d be hard pressed to find something better.

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