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The Hunter Valley is a beautiful area inland from Newcastle on the central coast of New South Wales. The area is one of Australia’s premier wine growing regions, and since we just happened to be travelling through the Hunter Valley on our Great Australian Road Trip, we kind of had to stop to do some wine tasting. I mean we couldn’t really just pass through such a famous wine growing region without sampling a few, could we? It just wouldn’t be proper.
We had camped for the night at Lake Liddel just south of Muswellbrook, so it was only a short drive to the main wine growing area around Cessnock. The big sign saying “Wineries” on the New England highway made it pretty easy to find, and sure enough, every road that we went down in the area was lined with vineyards. Too excited by the prospect of wine tasting, we basically pulled into the first winery that we found was open.
Welcome to Wine Country. This could be dangerous.
A vineyard in the Hunter Valley
The winery, Ironbark Hill, proved to be a fantastic choice. We sampled several nice reds including some peppery Shiraz, but it was their award winning Merlot that really touched our taste buds, and we of course walked away with a bottle for later.
We stopped in at several different wineries and sampled all kinds of wines, but made sure to keep our purchases down to only a few bottles. James Estate turned out to be another good choice, leaving with a bottle of citrusy Semillon and a Cabernet Sauvignon. We left Oakvale with a lovely bottle of Pinot Noir.
Keith Tulloch Winery
Wine tasting at James Estate
Really, we could have gone all day or even a whole week with all of the wineries around, so we had to skip most of them, but still enjoyed the drive through this wonderful wine region.
Panorama of Lindeman’s Winery
After stopping for lunch at a picnic spot overlooking the large and popular Lindeman’s Winery, we drove through Cessnock to continue on to find our next camping spot, where I was looking forward to opening one of our new bottles of wine. The rest of the day turned into a much longer adventure than expected, and that bottle of wine had to wait, but that is a story for another day.
Our collection of wines from the Hunter Valley
Beautiful and serene! these are the two words which can describe this winery. I would love to spend some days in quiet here, if permitted.
[…] had spent the morning wine tasting in the beautiful Hunter Valley wine region, and after lunch we drove through the town of Cessnock to try and find the road up to Watagan […]
Would love to get up to the Hunter Valley to try some wine! We often head to the vineyards on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. They have some really great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Be sure to try Ten Minutes By Tractor’s wine if you ever get down these ways.
Hi Sean, thanks for the recommendation! I never made it to the Mornington Peninsula but when I do I will definitely try out some wines. I do like a good Pinot Noir.
[…] where we enjoyed a delicious campfire dinner. Steak and roast vegies, plus a couple of glasses of Hunter Valley wine. Perfect. Our camp on the Abercrombie […]
[…] had gone a little overboard when we were in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, and since we are travelling on a fairly tight budget, we had to limit ourselves to only buying […]
[…] travel photo is of the vineyard at Lindemans Winery in the Hunter Valley, Australia. The Hunter Valley is New South Wales’ premier wine region, and also one of the best in Australia. Being wine […]
If you come again visit our Meadery for something different.