Seeing how it is now winter here in Sydney, I don’t really spend that much time outdoors. After about a week and a half of not going anywhere, we decided to play tourist, and check out the area. Even though we are not really wine drinkers, we decided to go see the Hunter Valley, which is one of Australia’s most famous wine-growing regions, known for both its red and white wine varieties. It is also a major tourist destination in New South Wales and is the 6th most visited place in Australia, attracting more than 2.5 million people annually. Well, that tells me that either it’s a pretty neat place to see, or there are an awful lot of alcoholics in Australia. Either way, we made reservations with a tour for Friday, and prayed for a nice sunny day.
Friday came, and at ‘o early thirty, we got up, got dressed, and walked to the train station. This was the first time I was up before the sun since I have come to this wonderful country, and, just as in the States, I am not a fan of hours this early. While we were walking, I soon discovered that even though this is the “Southern” hemisphere you can still see your breath if it is cold enough. Again, not a fan.
We found our bus and driver Steve, and when everyone was on board, we hit the road for wine country. Everyone on the bus was sober and still asleep, so it was a quiet ride for the two-hour trip.
When we finally got to the Valley, the scenery burst into postcard type views everywhere you looked.
Rows and rows of grapes everywhere.
One right after the other.
The first place we stopped was McWilliams, which is one of the oldest wineries in the area. It opened in 1880, has had a few name changes, and has only had 4 master wine makers in all those years. (Talk about job security!)
This is what the winery looks like in the summer.
Seeing how it is winter, all the plants are dormant, and look like they’re dead.
Here’s grapevines in the height of their season.
Here they are in the height of winter.
Around September or October, which is spring here, the plants will start to grow again, and start producing grapes. February to April is harvest time, so the whole winery will be in full swing.
Way back in 1880, the first grapevines were planted here, and they are still producing to this day. As with any business, they did expand, so more and more grapes were planted, which meant they would have to change the way things were done.
Most of the crop is now picked by machine, as is pruning. The original plants are still maintained by hand, because after all, they are 132 years old, and still going strong. As expected, any wine from these grapes are considered a premium wine, so naturally the cost is higher.
After the grapes are picked, they are put into this machine that will get rid of the stems.
From there they go into these HUGE tanks, and sit and rest a while.
After straining, they make it to these tanks. The skins of the grape is what gives red wine it’s color and dryness. The longer the skins are in the juice, the darker the color, and dryer the wine. So if they are making white wine, they strain the skins out right from the start. If they are making red, they make sure the skins are submerged in the juice, and will stir the skins every so often to pull more color out. If they are making a rose’, they leave the skins in for only a short amount of time. After that, the grapes go to be pressed to get even more juice out.
They had an example of an old juice press that they don’t use anymore.
Being brought up on American TV, and I Love Lucy, I was expecting to see an area that had oak barrels cut in half, and a bunch of little ol’ Italian ladies stomping on the grapes. Turns out, they have changed it. Now they use an airbag system that will very gently press out as much juice as they want. I don’t know about you, but if I were a grape, and I was being squeezed like that, I would wine about it too.
Here’s Gene standing in front of the new and improved airbag press. Notice the big smile on his face? It’s not because he got to stand next to the press. No, he was really excited to be able to wear one of those day-glow yellow vests again like he did at work.
After all that pressure is put on those poor grapes, some of the red wine is put into oak barrels to continue aging. Turns out each one of those oak barrels cost anywhere from $350.00 to $1200.00 each, and last only about 4 years.
After our tour, we got to go for our sampling and lunch. I had been to other wineries before, so I was expecting very small samples to try.
When we got to our seats, I was quite amazed to see that 4 samples were waiting for each of us, and each sample was about a quarter of a glass.
The table looked wonderful, and everyone was pleasantly surprised. After a very filling meal, we were allowed to sample even MORE wine, and of course, purchase as many other wines we wanted.
When we were finished at this winery, we waved goodbye to their really neat door (which was made out of old oak barrels) and headed for another winery. Seeing how I had a bunch of wine for lunch (and no breakfast by the way), I never did catch the name of the second place we went to.
There was more scenery, and I noticed that almost everyone on the bus was a lot more talkative than earlier. This second stop didn’t give us a tour, they just gave us a talk about wine, and gave us more samples. Again, they were LARGE samples, but this time, they did have buckets we could spill any samples into that we didn’t like. To help us clean our palate, they also served us cheese and crackers. After our private sampling session, we were encouraged to go into the shop where we were allowed to sample even MORE wine, and of course, purchase as many other wines we wanted.
After staggering back to the bus, we were off to a village of little shops this time instead of another winery. There was more beautiful scenery, and the voices on the bus went round and round…..all the live long day.
The village was quaint, and the wine shop made sure we had our own private sampling again. Seeing how I had had enough wine for the day, I decided to go check out the rest of the village.
There was a cookie shop that made sure everyone within a mile’s distance could smell their wares. They did have quite a selection, I must say!
My question is what are “fake” ingredients?
They had a candy shop, and a chocolate shop, but I was in no mood for any more sugar.
The Christmas shop was nice, and no real sugar anywhere! Just glass candy canes.
When everyone was done shopping (or should I say “sampling”), we headed back to Sydney. As the views of the vineyards started to slow down, so did all the conversation on the bus. The only thing that you could hear was the snoring.
About 45 minutes into the ride, Steve, the bus driver let us know that on our left was a herd or mob of wallabies!
Yes, I finally got to see roos out in the wild! It only took 1 year, 3 months, and 26 days, but I finally saw some! There were about 2 dozen of them, and they were just having a grand ‘ol time having dinner, and catching up with old friends and family. I really enjoyed the fact that they all waved and wished us all a G’Day as we passed by, but was really surprised to see them holding wine glasses and sampling wine. But then again, that’s what you do when you’re in the Hunter Valley.
American Aussie 