A Day of Wine, Cheese, Wine & More Wine

On Sunday, Sara, Aubrey and I participated in a Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour. Hunter Valley is considered the wine country of New South Wales. Always when I hear “Hunter Valley,” I think of the Hudson Valley and feel a great sense of nostalgia. The Hunter Valley is located about 2 hours north of Sydney. It is a rural, beautiful area, much like our very own Hudson Valley except that this H-Valley is flourishing with exquisite vineyards and wineries.

The Tour Van

 Our tour guide for the day was Keith, and he was a character. Keith was an old man who wore a hat with a dead, dried-up snake wrapped around it. This I would expect from a tour guide in the outback, but not from a man taking me wine tasting. How wonderfully wacky! Keith drove like a senile mad-man. Be warned: if you don’t buckle up when this man is driving you’re going to end up in your neighbor’s lap (I speak from experience). He gave commentary about everything, freely sharing his opinions along the way. For example, when discussing the Sydney Olympics Keith bluntly stated that “synchronized swimming is as exciting to watch as paint falling off the wall.” I quite enjoy synchronized swimming, but I kept quiet; I didn't want to argue with the man wearing a dead snake on his head.

With Keith, our beloved tour guide

Keith spent a good half hour of the ride up telling us the horrible, true story about the Chamberlain family, whose hometown we passed on the drive. Apparently, the family took a trip to the outback including their newborn baby girl, Azaria. One evening, the mother shrieked that “A dingo took my baby!” (f.y.i- a dingo is a free-roaming, primitive canine). Azaria was gone, without a trace. Officials looked into the baby's disappearance and eventually charged the mother with her murder, attributing her criminal behavior to postpartum depression (or something mental like that). The trial was a highly publicized media frenzy. Mother Chamberlain was found guilty of murdering baby Azaria and sent to prison. Years later, a piece of Azaria's clothing was found in a dingo lair, supporting the mother’s initial claim that a dingo stole her baby. Mrs. Chamberlain was released from prison and exonerated of all charges. If this story sounds familiar, its probably because you've seen the movie A Cry In The Dark starring Meryl Streep, which is about this terrible occurrence. If your interest is piqued then I suggest you rent the movie. Mine, however, was not. When Keith had finished telling the story, I wanted to shout, “Thanks a lot Keith! I'm going to the outback in a week.” Now I will also fear dingoes when I go, along with the other thousand Australian creature that go “boo” (among other things) in the night.

There were ten other people on the tour with us: two couples from Brisbane, an Italian couple, and a family of four originally from South Africa. I'm not sure why, but these parents decided to drag their children along on the wine tasting tour. Poor kids, I bet they had a blast! As you can see from the photo below, the young lad and I became good buddies. Actually, not at all. We didn't speak once the entire day, but for some odd reason he decided to stretch is arm up and around my shoulder for the group shot.

The group

The Hunter Valley Wine tour was gaily enjoyable. We spent the day venturing to five wineries where we sampled an array of sparkling, white, red and dessert wines. I loved “doing research” tasting all the wines, as one employee at the Savanna Winery put it. “I had some friends over last night,” she said winking, “to do research on some bottles of wine.” Cheers to that. I am a full supporter of conducting wine research. Truthfully, I'm not the most wine savvy person. I don't know the wine lingo, I can't tell the difference between wines, and I most certainly can't pronounce any of them (maybe I should have taken the Wine and Beer Appreciation course at Syracuse after all). But none of that matters because, despite my lack of wine knowledge, I enjoy drinking it.  

The Savanna Winery. 

I discovered sparkling wine on this trip. Never before had I tasted a sparkling wine. I have been missing out. Sparkling wine is crisp, bubbly, and refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed drinking it. Dessert wine, on the other hand, I discovered to be awful (in my opinion). I have a sweet tooth, but man that stuff is potent. Dessert wines were the only wines I consistently took a sip of, cringed and dumped straight into the slosh bucket. Although, I must admit that by the end of the trip most of the wine was ending up in the bucket. By the fifth winery I was struggling to bring the glasses of wine to my lips. It reached a point where everything started to taste the same; the chardonnays and merlots and the likes merged into one, and the initial enjoyment I had derived from tasting such lovely wines dissipated. I guess there is such thing as too much of a good thing, but just barely. 

Winery # 5

Fortunately, in between tastings we stopped to sample some awesome soft cheeses, balsamic vinaigrettes, vinegars and olives. They were mmm mmm good, and a welcomed change of tastes. I have decided there is really nothing better than a platter of quality cheeses, crackers and olives accompanied by a glass of wine. Oh, and then followed by decadent chocolates of course. Our last stop on the tour was to a chocolate shop Us girls decided to sample platter of homemade fudges which were simply delightful on my taste buds. Overall, it was a day of gluttony, sunshine and pleasure.

Cheese tasting!

Fudge platter from the chocolate shop