What a weekend
Two reasons, spent it in the Hunter and England forwards dominated the Aussie pack ... a few too many beers were drunk.
Back to the Hunter. We ended up having lunch at
Firestick cafe @ Poole's Rock, a great choice in the end, lovely, lovely food, not pricey at all and a great modern dining area, would thoroughly recommend.
Wines tasted that were really very good.
Tintilla (What a lovely place that is, Barbara sat us down round a big table and took us through their wines, a really enjoyable experience, and a big difference after coming from Tempus Two where no time was spent with us
)
Stand Out wines were the
Sangiovese 2005 (Barbara mentioned they took a trip to the King Valley to talk with the Pizzini family about Italian grape varieties, I must admit I am a fan of the Pizzini Sangiovese. The other was the
Reserve Shiraz 2005. Tintilla also do some lovely Olives, which we bought plenty of, yum, yum.
Tyrrells - took the group there for the free wine tour, which was really enjoyable. Took around 1 hour and was very informative, talking about the whole wine making process. Would definitely recommend. Also the service we had for the tasting was great, again spending plenty of time with the group.
Stand Out wines were
Single Vineyard St Stevens Semillion (this was my favourite Semillion of the trip, and I am not a particular liker of that grape normally) and
St Stevens Shiraz (always liked this one, the earthy, white peppery taste .. lovely). Also tasted the
Vat 9 and
4 Acres and thought both were good, but preferred the Vat 9 (I think that will be a blinder given another 5+ years.
Kevin Sobels. Another really enjoyable experience, the person took time with us, discussing each of the wines in turn...really good.
Stand Out wines (for the ladies) the
Verdelho and the
Sweet and Lovely red.
Tempus Two a very modern and trendy setup, however the customer service was poor. Not an enjoyable experience after the likes of the smaller wineries. Did quite like the Pewter Sangiovese, however at $38 and after poor service we tok our business elsewhere
Peterson's Champagne House - not a bad experience, it was v v busy, but one person spent time with us.
Stand Out Wines - the ladies loved them all ... bubbles and all that.
Unfortuntely we didn't get to Meera Park, Lake Folly which I wanted to go to .. but hey it is only 2 hours away .. so another time.
I did however manage to drink enough beer (Blue Tongue, obviously) to sink a few ships while watching the rugby and shouting at the TV ... go England!!