In January 2023, Nick and I headed to the Hunter Valley for Katie and Michelle's wedding (Nick's bestfriends). I remember a lot of what we drank and we bought several bottles home with us. This experience was really enjoyable and the wine we drank was very nice. For the five days, we stayed in Nulkaba at the Fletcher house, which was across the road from The mighty foghorn brewery. One of the days, we had lunch at Iron bark brewery. I really liked this place, they served delicious pizza and beer.
Here are a few vineyards that we visited:
Lucy's Run
- 1274 Wine Country Dr, Lovedale NSW 2325
20.1.23 Lucy's run was one of the first Vineyards that we went to when we arrived in the Hunter. It was run by a husband and wife, both who had a lot of knowledge about wine. The lady and owner of the vineyard even joined in with us on the drinking! She was an awesome person, but it was a bit of a worry that she was drinking the same amount as us. Well it's not up to me to judge her, I do love how much she loves wine though.
They run off a farm and the owners are big believers in adopting animals from the RSPCA. Many of the wines are named after their pets. It was a very comforting and homely vibe that I received from the owners and the small vineyard. She also provided us with some cool details about wine making and recommended us different locations based on our taste in wine.
Finally, they offered us a platter with various dips which were quite amazing. We wanted to buy 6 of the 2014 wines but ended up leaving with just two (with the idea to buy more later). The wines that we chose we thought were at least 4-5/5.
- The single barrel 2020 #Shiraz 4/5.
- The 2014 #Shiraz.
Tintilla
- 725 Hermitage Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
20.1.23 On this day, we also visited Tintilla for a cheese platter and wine. I did not enjoy this place as much as others, mostly because the person in charge of wine-tastings did not really provide us with much information. It took a very long time for them to serve us the wines, despite it being reasonably quiet. Nevertheless, we still had a nice time.
Peterson House & the wedding
- Broke Rd & Wine Country Drive, Pokolbin NSW 2320.
21.1.23 On the 21 Jan 2023, Michelle and Katie got married at the Peterson House in the Hunter Valley. It was a really wonderful day. The Vineyard was really pretty place to be married, with the reception inside, in a brick building.
The wedding was really fun, the wine was really amazing. I can't stop thinking about this wine. For starters, I do not like sparkling wine, but I was drinking the bubbly rose all day! It was so delicious. However, my biggest mistake was moving to red's too late in the evening. The moment I tasted their Shiraz, I was in love. It was 100% 5/5. It was a mistake to start drinking this too late as I only had 2 glasses before we had to go home.
Piggs Peake
- 697 Hermitage Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
22.1.23 The Piggs Peake winery was the last place that we visited. This was not so much a vineyard but they sourced grapes from around Australia and made their own wine from it. It was pretty crafty and had more of a brewery vibe to it.
The wine sales guy was quite young and didn't really share much information or knowledge with us. Non-the-less, the wine was relatively cheap so we bought two bottles: A Pinot Noir and a Shiraz. The Pinot was drank that evening/afternoon and the Shiraz was saved for a time in the future that we want to drink it. :)
I think one of the coolest things about this place was the wine glasses. We were very close to buying 2, but I quickly said no as they were $25-$30 each! $60 couldv'e afforded us 2 more bottles of wine. Wine>>>>>>glasses.
Hungerford Hill
- 2450 Broke Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
22.1.23 The day after the wedding, we headed to Hungerford Hill Vineyards. It had a more classy vibe to it and it was definitely one of the bigger wineries in the area. I wasn't sure how I felt about it when I first arrived.
When we were seated, there was no-one around. The guy shared a lot of information with us and let us try 15 different wines, he even opened some of the more expensive ones for us.
We learned a lot about the wines in the area and we even had some deep chats about his life as a security guard before moving into the wine sales industry. Of all the wines we tasted, I rated one 6/5:
- Sweet Hermitage 2005 Shiraz: We bought this bottle which costed us $95. The most I've ever spent on wine to date! My mouth is watering as I write this short review as I am excited for the day that we open it.