On Friday last we hopped in the car after work and took a leisurely drive to the Hunter Valley, just a couple of hours away. We arrived in time for dinner, joining 9 others, and then thoroughly prepared ourselves for the wine tasting weekend. In fact, we probably over-prepared slightly – but hey if you’re going to do something, it’s worth doing well! Fortunately our cabin was a fair distance from that of our neighbours, so the disturbance was limited to what we could remember the next day.

Saturday welcomed us with greasy bacon rolls, and the arrival of our tour bus, which took us round to 5 different wine farms, our lunch venue and a chocolatier. The Hunter Valley has more of a commercial feel than Stellenbosch, with wine farms generally well sign posted and within fairly close proximity to each other. Grant reckons that he prefers it to the Cape wine farms for all those reasons. The region specialises in Semillon and Shiraz, with a variety of other wines and ports available too. You have to see it for yourselves.

Following another long night on Saturday, Sunday was just as productive; but the wine tour bus was now swapped for a team of designated drivers, as we persevered with our sampling of the regions offerings. We also included a cheese tasting and pub lunch, just to balance out the wine and comfort the battered digestive systems. All in all the weekend was a productive one, as we managed to fuel inject the initiation of our new wine collection with a tally of 18 bottles of various wines; we also procured garlic flavoured olive oil and caramelised balsamic (both produced in the Hunter) and a regional recipe/guide book.

Visitors prepare yourselves – a visit to the Hunter Valley will be compulsory during your stay!