Wine Tasting Experience at Hunter Valley
It was a sudden decision that my friend and I joined a wine tasting tour in Hunter Valley. My friend who is living in Sydney for almost four years now had told me that she had never been to Hunter Valley and me being in the city for a vacation was a perfect opportunity. She can already go on a tour at the popular wine region that she had been wanted to experience. Since I didn’t set a concrete schedule for my activities in Sydney, I thought that it would also be lovely to include Hunter Valley in my itinerary. Australia is the fourth largest exporter of wine in the world. I’ve heard of great things about local winery in this country. I reckoned it would be great for me to taste the local wines and experience the tour.
Hunter Valley is one the best-known regions in Australia that produces wine. It played a significant role in history as the first region to produce wine in Australia.
Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour is fairly popular day trip out of Sydney. There are different tour agencies from the city that offer the said tour. We were fortunate that Activity Tours Australia had available seats for my friend and I on our preferred dates. We then just found ourselves one day hopping on the tour bus bound to the countryside.
My friend and I spent our day in Hunter Valley by visiting few local wineries in the region. We visited three wineries such as Iron Gate Estate, Savannah Estate and Mount View Estate. Each has unique and excellent wine produce. We started the wine tasting before mid-day. We didn’t mind if it was still broad daylight to have alcohol intake. Everyone seemed excited to begin the wine tasting.
We got to try varied types of wines, from white to red to sparkling to sweet wines. We were able to savor different wine varieties and learn some of the finesses of tasting. Wines were paired with cheese, biscuits and chocolates. We were also able to try the iconic wine of the region, the Hunter Valley Semillon, which I was actually able to like. The region also produces several other types of wine including Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Verdelho.
Our guide told us that you could only either love or hate wine. There’s no pretentious about drinking it. That it’s okay not to like it. And I agreed that he was right.
During the wine tasting, sommeliers took time to explain about each kind of wine that we tasted. The sommelier from each winery that we went to provided a full explanation about the wine origin, how it was produced and its content. Each of them also discussed the differences and the individual taste of the wines that we had. They also did suggest and recommend which one is actually great. A list of wines was also given to us that served us our guide to note our favorites in case we would like to order a bottle to take home.
My personal favorites were the white and sweet wines. I was never really a fan of wine but I was able to appreciate its taste after my first wine tasting experience in Cebu. But after joining another wine tasting and in Australia, I guess I’ll be seeing myself again doing more wine tasting tours.
Spending a day in Hunter Valley was absolutely a great side trip from Sydney. It is a perfect getaway especially for wine enthusiasts. The day tour gave us enjoyable wine tasting experiences from three different boutique wineries and provided us a scenic tour to see the beautiful countryside of the well-liked wine region of Hunter Valley.
Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour
Activity Tours Australia
14 George Cheadie Place
Woonona, NSW, 2517
Australia
Phone: 1800-990-457
www.activitytours.com.au
