We’ve got an early start today – our tour pickup is at 6:55 am at a hotel a few blocks away. But we’re not sleeping anyway, so its not a big deal to be up at 5:45 for the tour.
The pick up goes smoothly – Bill our tour guide/driver is right on time. We drive around the city picking up other passengers and end up with a full van of about 14 people – including 2 already staying out in the Hunter Valley.
Along the way, Bill gives us the history of the valley. Originally started as a mining area, and there is still mining going on today. We pass through the town of Cessnock, which is the center of the valley, filled with the little houses built for miners 100 years ago. The wine business started back with the miners, who were looking for cheaper options for the rum they were drinking, which was expensive as they had to buy it. They started making fortified wine (or port), and then moved on from there to shiraz and Semillon grapes.
The wines we will be tasting today are only available in the Hunter Valley. You can’t buy them in the liquor or bottle stores. As a matter of fact, even the one commercial winery we will visit today has a special vintage that they only sell outside the valley.
The traffic is light, so we are actually a little early to our first stop, The Capercaillie winery, named after a mythical Scottish bird.
It’s a small boutique winery with some great wines, particularly the Verdelho, which I really enjoyed. We have fun sampling and getting to know our fellow tour members. Two of the girls are on the cruise with us – Katie from Colorado Springs (grew up in Old Town) and Becca from Silver Spring. Both went to grad school at Denver. What a small world. After cheese and crackers and more wine, we depart from Capercaillie to McGuigan.
This is the only commercial winery we’ll visit. The wine’s ok, the presentation a little hard to hear and the wines only so so. We are liking the boutique wineries better. Afterward, we head to the Hunter Valley chocolate shop.
Typical tourist destination, but it is a nice little break – with great chocolates. So great in fact, that we bought an overly expensive bag of mixed chocolate treats. It will keep us busy on the ship. Why not?
Next up is the Smelly Cheese shop where we sample a bunch of different cheeses with Sandra – who is an absolute hoot. The cheeses are excellent – and they give me some good ideas for the goat cheese we have waiting for us at home. Mix is with pesto and rub it between the skin and meat of a chicken and roast. Mix it with feta, sun dried tomato and garlic – sort of like what we do with feta alone. Yum. We pass on purchases here because we’ll have to eat it all in one night – no bringing food on the ship – we’ve run into trouble there before.
Then there is lunch – for which we have to pay extra – otherwise Bill can drop us somewhere for 45 minutes and pick us back up. Not worth it. He’s given us menus in the van, and we’ve all chosen our lunches. We order the hamburger and the chicken Caesar salad – both of which we split. They are totally yummy – and totally filling. But nice to have something substantial in our stomachs to continue on with your wine tasting.
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