Hunter’s Valley

This famous wine region deserved a post of its own. At least we thought so.

We are not really connoisseurs of Australian wines in Europe, too fruity for our taste. But we figured we had to try them now we are in the Oz. Best bet was to go to the oldest wine region in the country / continent – Hunter’s Valley.

Big surprise was that there were practically no vineyards to be seen! Just vine tastings and shops galore. Soon we realized that this is a big selling ground and not big grapes growing ground. In one of the vineries we visited they actually confessed that the grapes grown in their vineyards in Hunter’s are not used for vine at all!

Vines we have tried were not so bad. Definitely more to Australian vine than we thought. Are they going to make our first pick in the shops? Hardly. Only wine we bought was the closest to Bordeaux we could get (no Shiraz in it definitely!).

In Hunter valley we decided to treat ourselves to a motel room (we sort of needed a shower). So, we ended up in Kurri-Kurri. And indeed we got the shower there – a cold one. As was the welcome. First the guy was annoyed that we checked the prices on the Internet (tried to charge us higher rate). And then on the checkout we were chased out because we were 15 minutes late. Reality: another lovely perk of Australia – checkouts are at 10 am!!! And this being country of rules and regulations this means 10 am sharp. So, we left the place with the owner yelling that if we do not leave immediately he will call the police. What is it with the Australians and this fear of police – never have we seen anything like it before. And this would include growing up in what is these days known as socialistic repression.

On our way to Sidney (our New Year’s Eve destination) we also saw some more beaches (honestly, they all look same by now). And a few more… and a few extra…