… to the smoky Hunter Valley …

… on a wine-tasting tour.

Australia is currently experiencing a spring of unseasonably high temperatures and serious bush fires, raising fears of even worse fires to come this summer. Many tours have been cancelled but Hunter Valley was deemed safe enough for a trip on Thursday. Our Red Carpet tour guide, Don, picked us up at the hotel around 7:30 am, for the two hour ride to Hunter Valley’s famous wineries. Hunter Valley is where Australia’s wine industry was born; a pioneering Australian would-be vintner traveled to France to study wine-making techniques. Returning to Australia with vines and tools of the trade, he was given land in Hunter Valley by the government for his experiment. The vines took, and the rest is history. Although Hunter Valley now only produces about 5% of Australian wines, it is hailed as the oldest wine region, and is home to many fine boutique wineries.

We took the Pacific Highway, an amazing six-lane highway which cuts straight through residential and commercial neighborhoods, with traffic whizzing past stores and houses. First stop: morning tea and a quick stroll at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby. This was a lovely family-run wild animal park, where the animals roamed freely and approached us with no fear.

 

Kangaroos and emus took food from our hands.

 

 

Wallabies perched on the rocks; surprisingly beautiful dingoes (who knew?) lay in the sun – behind a fence.

 

The playful Tasmanian Devils were also fenced, but romped with their keeper, even snuggling with him while he showed us their sharp white teeth.  

 

Along the road we saw charred trees from previous fires, and smoke in the distance from the current blazes. Bush fires are particularly bad because so much of the bush is eucalyptus, which has very oily leaves. In the heat the leaves release oil into the air, where it quickly combusts. Next stop: The Smelly Cheese Shop to taste cheese and olive oil.

 

The Brokenwood Winery was close by for our first wine tasting. We tasted 12 different wines, 4 whites, 6 reds and 2 dessert wines. Australia is best known for two wines: Semillon, a white wine which can be drunk shortly after bottling, or aged up to 12 years; and Shiraz, a red wine which should be aged at least a few years, and can be aged 20+ years. Is someone looking smirky-eyed?!

 

We followed the wine tasting with a wine lunch at the Hunter Valley Resort; four courses were served with four glasses of wine, two reds and two whites. Anyone who wanted could do an optional beer tasting at the Resort following lunch.

We weren’t done yet. Our next stop was at the Oakvale Winery, an immaculate facility where we tasted another 11 wines and an apple cider. The cider was delicious and we bought a bottle to share on the cruise.

 

But that wasn’t all. At the Hunter Valley Gardens we stopped for shopping and a chocolate tasting. Everyone but the driver snoozed on the way back to Sydney.

Back at the hotel we had only time to drop our bags before heading by cab to the Entertainment Quarter for back-to-back comedy shows at the Comedy Store. We arrived at 6:35 for a 7:00 show, and decided to try to eat dinner before the show. The lovely people at Ablaze Bar & Grill talked us into trying a tapas meal, which we consumed in 20 minutes - with a glass of wine – and made it to the show on time.

Wil Anderson headlined the first hour-long show, followed by the Spring Comedy Carnival, 10 comics performing for two hours. It was a very full day!