The Easter Weekender Part 1 - The Hunter Valley

The long weekend here got off to a flying start last Thursday night with a huge night out with my work colleagues in Pyrmont. On Friday H and I took a walk to the Cabbage Tree Bay and I then had a surf with Martin. A few of us went out in Manly on Friday night to celebrate Simone's birthday. We ate in this really bohemian restaurant which looked like someones house, except there was a tree and a bike in the bath and there was a jazz quartet playing very loudly. It was loads of fun though and the booze was flying, especially the sangria. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so there's no pictures of that night I'm afraid.

Another hangover followed on Saturday morning but we had to be up really early because eight of us were booked onto a tour of the Hunter Valley wine region which is a couple of hours outside of Sydney. We had decided to do it this way so we could all have a drink. Neither H or I had been to the Hunter Valley before and it was the furthest I have been out of Sydney since we arrived here last May (I've been having too much of a good time in Sydney!).

We left Sydney at ~8am and headed north past the Hawkesbury River. The tour took us to a cheese tasting shop, a chocolate tasting shop, a beer tasting brewery, three wineries and a restaurant for a gourmet lunch. The wine tasting begun in earnest at about 10.30am at the first of the wineries, 'Tempus Two'. It is quite a famous winery and our tour guide, Nigel, told us that it was the "nightclub" of the wine world. From there we went to a winerie called 'Mistletoe'. The Rosé Wine caught our attention there. It was then to the 'Blutongue' brewery for some beer tasting before lunch. The last winery of the day was 'De Bortoli', an Italian establishment which did a rather nice Semillon. There was also a bit of an Easter Fair going on there.

We got back to Sydney at 6ish and headed back to Manly. It was a quality day out and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Seeing as word of mouth is a great way of advertising, if you are in the area, and fancy tasting some local wines, then check out these guys.