Monday, September 29 2008, 23:30

Winetasting in the Hunter Valley

Chris Howard is returning to the icy shores of Britain later this month, poor bugger. So to get a bit of quality time in with his mates before he goes, he decided to organise a weekend away in the Hunter Valley. Unfortunately his organisational skills only extended as far as delegating this task to me while he went swanning off up the east coast. Deciding that I didn't have the energy to be original or creative, I did my best to copy everything we did last time we went to the Hunter in 2006. I booked the same Barnstay accommodation, tried to find the same tour, but being a large bunch of men, we weren't even welcome on some, so I settled for a charter tour to ourselves. All Chris had to do was purchase the weekend's vegetables from Paddy's Markets and carry them home, but even that inconsequential task provoked a text of complaint on account of the weight of the groceries. Poor wee thing. What does he spend all that time in the gym for?

So Friday rolled around, and we made our way up in two cars, luggage and grub crammed in the boot, passengers crammed in the back. By the time we got there, we just about had enough time to fling together a quick thai and chill out with a few drinks in the living room before our work weariness forced us all to bed.

First thing Saturday, while Tim and I got our hands dirty in the kitchen, Chris H roped the willing into an impromptu fitness session outside - running, squats, and push-ups. And all before breakfast! Seems like madness to me, but there was no coercion involved. Maybe it was to offset the huge carb intake planned for the day. Over the course of the day, our little tour van dropped us off at five different vineyards with a stop at Hunter Valley Gardens Village for lunch. The Village appears to be an artificial cutesy shopping mall with overpriced shit for wine tour groups to visit at lunchtime, but it was a nice little break from the van and the constant drinking.

Ah... the drinking. I think the plonk of the day was the dessert wine. We seemed to all be biased towards the lighter wines - verdelhos, semillons, moscatos, and the sweeter botrytis and muscat wines. We got off to a good start at our first stop (Briar Ridge), with a nice lady chatting amiably with us as she poured - quite the contrast to Iron Gate, where a stand-offish man made us stand while he rattled through the bland vintages. But probably the crown of the day was at Ernest Hill, where Rita got us all laughing as she filled our glasses. Maybe it's because it was the last stop and we were all semi-pissed, but she seemed genuinely funny, and she did throw in a bottle of sparkling moscato at the end. I already bought four - again, maybe because I'd had a skinful over the whole day...

A whole day's drinking left me a bit tired, and I wasn't the only one. After dinner (cheerfully washed down with the bonus free moscato), we managed one game of Articulate, which ended in Luke running around the room screaming, "In your face! In your face! In your face!" Everyone loves a graceful winner ;) Maybe that's what took it out of us, but within an hour, we were all tucked up in bed.

Our last morning in the Barnstay was taken up with clearing up after ourselves (only a few things burnt/destroyed). John, Chris, Luke, and I decided to make the most of being out of the city and stop off on the way - at a wildlife park of all places! It was a roasting day, far too hot to have tshirts on, so we attempted some topping up of tans while walking through the wildlife park. Only a handful of wallabies crossed our path, and a couple of emus and some exhausted looking roos were skulking around the giftshop, so we left a bit underwhelmed. Our last stop was for lunch on the Hawkesbury River, and then before we knew it, we were home sweet home again. With a full wine rack. Cheers!

Photos on facebook at the moment, coming here soon.