On Saturday, three of us (Tim, Glenn, and I) started with a quick look at Newcastle city - a walk along Nobbys Beach and up the Queen's Wharf Tower, and taste-testing some milkshakes on the foreshore. After our drie to the valley, lunch was at Harrigans Irish Pub -- more expensive than the average hamburger joint, but certainly very tasty. I'd go there again, although there are plenty of other places I'd like to try as well.
Tyrrells give tours of the winery every day at 1:30pm. Our Scotch tour guide (no, I mean he came from Scotland) was quite entertaining and made the tour interesting for everyone. At the end, he offered us comparisons of new and aged Semillons, wooded and unwooded Chardonnays, and Hunter, Heathcote, and McLaren Vale Shiraz. Although I'm not particularly into most of those wines, I certainly do like to try them, and to understand the different tastes.
We stopped at Brokenwood, and then decided to visit Cruickshanks - not realising how far the Upper Hunter is from the Valley Bottom (as the Upper folks call it). We didn't quite make it by the official closing time, but we did have the opportunity to taste a couple, and buy a souvenir for our Cruickshank colleague at work.
For dinner, we walked up and down Darby St in Newcastle, and eventually settled on a Thai restaurant with an upstairs balcony. The food was adequate. Dessert at Three Monkeys was certainly more than adequate in terms of quality, but the calories in the Mars Bar Cheesecake probably belong in the non-essential, low-nutrition category. Do I confess to purchasing a half bottle botrytis accompaniment?
By this stage of the evening, there wasn't much energy for the work/technology related discussions that I'd been expecting. It wasn't long before we met up with Sherrylee, Kylie, Jim, and Will on Sunday morning. We split into two cars, and headed back to the Hunter. The serious-wine-tasting carload visited Pepper Tree, De Iuliis, Small Winemaker Centre (where we all caught up for another very pleasant lunch al fresco), Audrey Wilkinson, and finally Gartelmann. Highlights for me were:
- Audrey Wilkinson winery - fantastic views and a beautiful setting. The Lake Shiraz (or whatever the new name is) was soft, subtle, smooth, with some complexity. It didn't have the body or the length that I look for, but the fruit flavours were favourable.
- The Small Winemaker Centre Icon Lounge. Some rather pricey wines available for tasting at a reasonable rate, from a fancy Enomatic machine. The Wilkinson, Andrew Thomas, and Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shirazes were all rather good.
- De Iuliis was a modern place, with a nice looking cafe and a gallery (which we didn't go into). Our server Sam was very friendly.
- Gartelmann had some nice Vintage Port Liquer Shiraz, and their Muscat was good too.
