Hunter Valley April 2013

Well overdue, but here are some pics of our trip from Armidale in northern NSW south to the Hunter Valley, from the autumn holidays. Given Gill's superior photographic skills, she took most of them (and I did all the driving).

Leogate

Stunning location, this winery is only six months old, although the vines are about 50 years old. These reasonably priced wines are cellar door only and all are all well made. The 09 Reserve shiraz was the pick, with a good 2011 shiraz and also a semillion-chardonnay, made in the more lightly oaked style that is bringing chardonnays back in from the cold.

Margan

The first winery we visited on this trip, and the best for all round cellar door experience courtesy of Jennifer, and quality of the wines. We picked up two very affordable whites - a Verdehlo and a Frizzante (only 8%) as well as a very good shiraz movedre.

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David Hook

We had to go here - any winery that advertises in the tourist guides with a photo of a man dressed as an astronaut deserves checking out. Fortunately, there was nothing gimmicky about the wine. This is a new winery specialising in Italian styles, including easy drinking red blends, a more complex barbera and an excellent riesling.

Full moon!

We stayed at Buffs, the same place we stayed when we were last here a couple of years ago. On the edge of the bush but near the wineries. Here's the view from the verandah.

Gundog

A new boutique winery with a young and experimental winemaker who spent time in France, Italy and San Francisco before establishing this place. What makes this place great is that they don't make any bad wines - they are all at least 'good', with some being outstanding. an estate shiraz, an off-dry semillon and a muscat were our picks.

Pokolbin Estate

Italian style reds in this place on the tourist bus trail - a very good reserve shiraz was our pick, but there were several good wines here.

Healthy Japanese for lunch!

Tamburlaine

These guys are right back on the money after getting a bit of a bad rep a few years ago. This organic winery does several great, easy drinking wines from their Orange vineyard, including verdelho, chardonnay (lightly oaked), shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and a grenache shiraz merlot from Orange.

Calais

The most consistent and best value - certainly for reds - was at Calais. We'd been here before with Wayne and Denise, and now are on first name terms with the woman who works here. Also cellar door only, what I like about Calais is that they only release wines when they are ready to drink - so many wineries had 2012 (or even 2013... 2012 was not a good year here anyway) wines, especially reds, which tasted ok but which needed "6 months" or "a year or two" or more before they would be at their best.  Not so at Calais. 2009 (a very good year for the Hunter) and older wines are now ready to drink. And given that we don't have a cellar and can't afford to 'invest' in buying wines to drink in a few years, Calais are great as they've done the maturing for us. Great place and highly recommended.

Blueberry Hill

With only about four wines, Blueberry Hill certainly do quality over quantity. The last winery we went to, it was also only 300 metres drive from where we were staying (which, at the end of a day of winetasting, was just as well really). They have one award winning and stand out shiraz that we had tried on our previous visit and had to get a bottle of once again.

Cheese and wine evening