The Trip Home

THE TRIP HOME

With the graduation over it was time to head for home so early the next day after taking a few additional photographs at the University I started out along the New England Highway towards the Hunter Valley where I had booked for a couple of days in a motel and for a tour of the vineyards.

I had noted a couple of places of interest to me on my drive to Armidale and the first one was the Banalasta Eucalyptus and Lavender Plantation between Armidale and Tamworth.  A big sign informed everyone that it was only a 4 minute drive along a side road which quickly degenerated into dirt track where you had to dodge the lizards.  The one in the photograph below didn't seem to be bothered by the cars and it was only when I tried to take an even closer shot that he spun around and went running into the undergrowth on his two hind legs.  From what I have been able to find out, he appears to be a dragon or Ctenophorus nobbi  for the more informed.  If you click on the photograph, a larger version will open in a new window - just click on the arrow to go back to the blog again.

The first thing I saw when I reached the plantation was a sign telling me to beware of the magpies since it was the nesting season when these birds become very aggressive but the sight of all the different lavenders in bloom was a magnificent display and took my mind off the magpies. 

A little later in the day it would have been an ideal place for a picnic lunch and I could have bought a bottle of wine from their shop if it hadn't been for driving.  Their vineyards are reputed to be at the highest altitude of all the Australian vineyards.

The next stop was at the Nundle Woollen Mills which meant turning off the New England Highway just before Tamworth and then rejoining it again a good deal further along the track.

One surprise here was when I walked through the door into the shop and heard someone say - now that's a face I recognise.  It was one of my friends from the Lace Group I belong to in Sydney, a good 400 klms away !

I had heard that there were demonstrations of a 100 year old spinning machine in the Mill but unfortunately I had just missed it.  I wasn't interested in buying any of the wool or garments but I did buy myself some blended wool and camel hair tops/rovings to spin up when I arrived home. 

There was a complete workshop on the lower floor of the factory with machines to take the wool from the raw fleece right through to the finished cloth or balls of wool which were then sold in the shop.

  

There was also an old treadle Singer Sewing machine......


...... as well as some felted bags and buntings for sale.

Further down the Highway there was a park dedicated to the memory of the First Fleet.


With such long distances to drive, it is always a good idea to take a break every two hours or so and this particular picnic ground had the most magnificent views of the the Great Dividing Range which runs parallel to the coast along the Eastern Seaboard of Australia.

After a few hours driving, I reached Cessnock, a small town in the Hunter Valley and booked into my motel.  At 10am the next morning, the tour bus arrived to pick me up and since it was a Monday morning there were only three of us taking the tour with a fourth person joining us just before lunch, included in the cost of the tour.  We were told that we would be visiting five wineries before being taken back to our motels around 5 to 5.30pm.

Because we were a small group we had plenty of room in the minibus for all our purchases.

The first vineyard on the tour was the Vinden Estate Winery, a very small winery which produces only 3 to 4,000 cases of wine a year and here I bought some 2007 late harvest semillon and 2007 Alicante Bouschet Rose.  We tasted about 8 wines here but none of the wines from this vineyard are sold in the bottle shops - strictly cellar door sales only.  In common with the majority of the vineyards in this area, members of their wine clubs are given good discounts when they purchase wines.

It was very pleasant sitting out on the patio tasting the various wines.

The next on the list was the McLeish Estate Vineyard, a two time winner of the Boutique Winery of the Year and where we tasted a 2003 vintage Shiraz, grown during the bush fires which ravaged the area in that year.  It had a distinctly smoky taste to it but later in the day when tasting another Shiraz at another cellar, it had no smoky taste at all and we were told that this was because of the wind direction during the fires.   I would have loved to have bought some of this wine but at $35 per bottle it was a little expensive for me.  As it was I bought some more dessert semillon.

The owners of this complex were in the middle of landscaping their gardens - it looks  little rough now but when they are finished it will be a lovely setting for tastings and picnics.

The McWilliams Mount Pleasant Vineyard was where we had lunch with a choice of Beef and Shiraz pie, Charred Chicken Breast or Salmon, with chat potatoes and salad, followed by a platter of fresh fruit which was so refreshing.  While we were waiting for our lunch to be served, we sampled quite a number of the different wines available with the promise of tastings of the dessert wines after our lunch.  I also found an excellent picnic bag here with an insulated section for carrying the food and wine and another section containing settings for four people consisting of cutlery, plates, wine glasses, serviettes, cheese board, cheese knife and bottle opener.  My girls had asked me to buy them some red wine, but not shiraz, so I bought them some Cabernet Sauvignon here.  I also bought the bag for myself.

We weren't really supposed to look into the big storage shed at the back of the winery but the guide opened the door and I took the opportunity of taking a quick snap.  We were told later that these barrels cost well over $1,000 each and while some wineries use them for a few years and then discard them, others have the interiors scraped under computer control and continue to use them.




At the Tulloch Vineyard they had some wonderful old style furniture in the tasting room and on the top shelf of the wall unit they had a large selection of the Hermitage Dry Reds.  The girl conducting the tasting was telling us about a recent party she had been to where a very old expensive bottle of wine was opened which everyone had been anticipating for a long time - only to find out that it was corked.  She said she cried.

From Tullochs we went on to the Audrey Wilkinson vineyard - the last stop of the day.  By this time after a full day's tasting we were all feeling rather happy and yes, I do know that you don't have to swallow all the samples, but who can resist the various vintages of their favourite wines.

There were two staff members at the bar with one of them telling us that his colleague was born in 1866 (the winery was  founded in 1866!).  She was not impressed !  By this time we realised that the guide had been correct when he said that we couldn't do justice to the wines tasted at the last winery of the day after sampling an average of 10 wines per establishment.

This old building is where the Audrey Wilkinson wines were first created.

One very modernistic building was the Tempus Two Winery which we were told was really just clearing house and not a true wine making complex.  I understand that it is not really approved of by the other vintners in the area




A well known tourist attraction in the Hunter Valley is the Hunter Valley Gardens which consist of 12 themed gardens spread over 25 hectares and were first created about 10 years ago. I didn't visit these gardens on this trip since I was only there for 2 days but perhaps on my next visit.

These Pelicans and water birds were not actually within the gardens but just cross the road from the entrance to them.

Part of the complex is a small shopping village with a bandstand, various boutique shops and even a small church which is a favourite for romantic weddings.








One of the last places I visited was the McGuigan's complex which has a great cheese shop. Here I bought four different kinds of cheese - a soft white Riley's marinated cheese in a quality screw top kitchen storage container, a marinated Fetta with capers, dried herbs, dried tomatoes and garlic , a golden rind soft yellow cheese and a brie.  I added a packet of crispbread, a bar of double chocolate fudge and they threw in a jar of apple and beetroot relish free of charge.

At the nearby Olive Centre I bought a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of salad dressing, Mango Chutney and three jars of dukka in various favours.  

Leaving the vineyard I took one last photograph of the old brick kilns in the grounds of the local brewery before heading home.

I took the opportunity of asking about any additives in the wines at the various wineries while on the tour and was told that they do add the preservative 220, a sulphide, to the grapes as they are picked, in common with wineries throughout the world.  If this was not added then the various vintages would only last for about 12 months.   One thing I noticed was that a lot of the wines are now capped with screw tops instead of corks.

It was a  lovely weekend and I am looking forward to my next visit now.