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Top Oz Tours offers a great range of Hunter Valley tours and experiences. You can book this tour here.
Postcard-pretty vistas of rolling green fields, charming farmhouses and magnificent vineyards — that’s what you can expect to see on a visit to the gorgeous Hunter Valley.
Australia’s oldest wine region is home to 150+ wineries and cellar doors, and deciding which ones to visit can be a daunting task. Tastes of the Hunter Wine Tours takes care of that difficult job. This boutique tour operator provides a deluxe, small-group Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour, with convenient pickup points in and around the Hunter region.
The day begins in style as we board our luxury mini-bus fitted with leather seats. An on-board TV playing 80s and 90s music videos sets a fun tone. Our tour guide Suzanne is bubbly and professional, and she quickly runs us through the day’s itinerary, hands out complimentary bottled water, and ensures that all of our group — a mixed bunch of different ages — are looking forward to what lies ahead.
Our first stop is Sobels Wines — housed in a distinctively shaped building of mahogany logs and plate-glass, with an entrance path fringed by rose bushes. Our visit coincides with the Handmade in the Hunter Markets (held here on scheduled Saturdays), where local growers and makers hawk their wares with pride and enthusiasm.
Kevin Sobels Wines is the present-day incarnation of a long line of winemakers, who began growing grapes in the Barossa Valley in the 1800s. Today, Sobels is one of only a few wineries that actually source all of their fruit from the Hunter region itself. The winery grows its own chardonnay, semillon, and gewurztraminer grapes.
Our group is ushered into the back bar for a private tasting. We’re greeted by Archie — the loveable resident Saint Bernard, and Jason — a sixth generation Sobel who expertly guides us through the range of sparklings, whites, reds, and dessert wines. Favourites include a beautifully balanced petit verdot, a ‘quartet’ (the winery’s own creation of a fruity yet dry blend of sauvignon, chenin blanc, verdelho, and traminer), and an oak-aged fortified red wine akin to a rich liquid fruit cake.
The next stop on this Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour is Ernest Hill Wines — another family run boutique winery, set in buildings splashed in shades of buttercup and vanilla. Our private tasting takes place in a cosy, light-filled room with walls covered in wine accolades.
The first wine up is a crisp and refreshing semillon from a 2016 vintage. Our host Ross explains that ‘vintage’ doesn’t necessarily mean old; it simply refers to grapes that have been picked (but not necessarily bottled) in a particular season. This range is named after Ross’ father Cyril. ‘To get your name on a bottle, you have to be deceased and a member of the family’, Ross reveals with a wry smile. His sense of humour carries through to the instructions for us to pour out any leftovers after each tasting. ‘They go to staff drinks later this arvo’, he jokes.
Appetites whetted by a busy morning, we have the chance to purchase lunch before moving on to our third and final cellar door stop — Capercaillie Wines — named after a ground-dwelling Scottish bird in honour of the owners’ Scottish heritage. A long table set with glass goblets awaits us alfresco-style on the verandah, where our host — the effervescent Tina — keep us enthralled with evocative descriptions of each wine’s aroma and potential food matches. The rose is likened to ‘strawberry wine’ that goes well with Mediterranean grazing platters (perhaps prosciutto, Kalamata olives and creamy feta), while the merlot is said to have sweet plum flavours and a floral aroma — ‘almost like violets on the nose’.
Tina explains that all Capercaillie’s estate-grown fruit is handpicked. Producing around 60,000 bottles a year (small by industry standards), the range is only available through their cellar door and wine club.
Our winery visits are done, but no tour of the Hunter region would be complete without dropping by the Hunter Valley Smelly Cheese Shop and Hunter Valley Chocolate Company. The first is bustling with tourists queueing for local olive and cheese tastings. The second offers a fabulous range of cocoa-based treats, including its own range of fudge (which is made on the premises). Everyone gets a mini patty pan of white, milk, and dark chocolate to try.
It’s a fitting end to what has been a sweet day out.
The writer travelled as a guest of Tastes Of The Hunter Wine Tours. You can book this tour here.
Browse our full range of Hunter Valley tours and experiences here.
Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Cindy Bingley-Pullin is a Sydney-based freelance writer, wanderluster, corporate bee, and happy homemaker. In between analysing spreadsheets in the office, she pursues her combined passions of travel and writing. Cindy’s work has appeared in Virgin Australia’s Voyeur magazine, International Traveller, Fitness First magazine, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
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