I am a wine enthusiast and writer without affiliation to commercial wine ventures or firms in the wine industry to ensure my opinions and points of view are strictly my own.
I have enjoyed wine increasingly over the last 20 years and present many of my views and learning through this blog. My book, Wine Sense, consolidates what I have learned about enjoying wine and enhancing wine drinking experiences which I look forward to passing onto you.
We kicked off #SAZTIP (SAZ in the Cellar Tip of the Week) last Thursday by showing people how to get wine out of a bottle when the cork is stuck inside. This happens rarely, but is useful to know. This week’s tip is useful every time you buy wine, and it is about buying fine wine inexpensively! In my upcoming book, Wine Sense, I admit to having overpaid for wine by 25% – 35% until recently. I get far better wine values now than I did previously, and doing so while buying better quality wine. Wine Sense spends an entire chapter discussing how to buy and store wine and highlights a number of things to ensure you are buying fine wine inexpensively. Key tips to help you achieve buying fine wine on the cheap, include:
Don’t buy wine retail, or if you do, only do so when they have at least a 20% off sale and you are getting one or two bottles free for every half-dozen you buy. These type of sales are always on.
Buy at auction. There are a number of fine auction houses and you can get some great wines for a fraction of the cost you otherwise would have to pay. Just make sure to check the wine provenance before buying.
Buy 10 – 15 year old fine wines instead of new vintages. They are drinkable sooner and someone else has paid the price for cellaring. Vintage wines are usually no more expensive than current vintages and you are more certain as to how they have matured.
Use Wine-Searcher for free or Wine-Searcher Pro for $39 per year to get the prices of all wines globally to compare. I have found 400% – 500% variances in prices for fine wines.
There is an abundance, dare I say ‘glut’ of fine wine on the market. Look to secondary markets to get the best buys and use Wine Searcher to find the best values.
I am often asked what does SAZ in the Cellar stand for and what was the meaning behind it? I think the ‘in the Cellar’ part is pretty obvious and relates to spending time in a wine cellar. I am a big believer that the best and best-valued wines you will drink are from your own cellar and are aged over time. I buy wine to put in the cellar; rarely do I buy a bottle of wine for immediate consumption. Most wine is drunk far too early and does not have the ability to reach its potential. Therefore, I spend a lot of time in my cellar: putting wine in, selecting wine to go with an upcoming meal and monitoring my wine inventory to make sure I have the right drops aging for the next decade. My wife calls my cellar my ‘man cave!’ Hence I thought it appropriate to think about wine from the perspective of the cellar. My upcoming book Wine Sense present a lot of information regarding how to calculate the size of your cellar, what to put in it and how to store wine in your cellar to make sure you get the most out of it.
SAZ in the Cellar
So why ‘SAZ?’ My wife had inspired me by writing her cooking and food blog DAZ in the Kitchen. Since she was in the Kitchen and I was in the Cellar, I thought I would play off her DAZ theme and become SAZ. I assumed DAZ meant ‘Deanna from A – Z,’ and I liked the idea of SAZ for Steve from A – Z. Therefore I became SAZ in the Cellar and proud of my moniker!
Much later I found out that it was a common Australian country town convention to provide a nickname which used your first initial and added ‘azza’ to it. My wife was looking for a nickname for her blog, but did not like Dazza, so shortened it to DAZ which she thought sounded better. I still like the idea of the AZ representing the body of knowledge from A – Z, but am really glad my wife decided to ignore convention and go with DAZ instead of Dazza. Otherwise, today I might have been Sazza in the Cellar instead of SAZ in the Cellar!
I have been anxious to return and have a meal to order at Paymasters Cafe in Newcastle, NSW. We had a specially prepared Christmas in July meal there about six months ago which was outstanding and the wines provided by McLeish Estate winery. But I wanted to explore a broader set of options from the menu and wine list. And I am glad we did; I am not sure I have had a better meal anywhere! The entire experience was done to perfection. First of all, we were in a refurbished historic building overlooking the waterfront, the front windows opened wide, and we had a table with a magnificent view and perfect weather. This was all a real plus and set the scene, but we came for the food and wine and were not to be disappointed.
We always look for things we would not be cooking at home and there were a few entrees and mains to choose from which satisfied that requirement. We started with the best bruschetta I have ever had and DAZ in the Kitchen had Baked Camembert Cheese for an entree and a robust Spanish Style Paella for the main. I had the Beef Carpaccio for an entree and Garlic Prawns in pastry for the main. We shared a most magnificent Golden Rough Lindt Chocolate Pudding for dessert. Everything was cooked to perfection and served at just the right time and temperature.
But this is a wine blog, so let’s talk about the wine! Let me start by say this: “This is the best-valued wine list I have seen seen that fits on one page!”Paymasters Cafe wine list has been extremely well thought out and reflects the effort Executive Chef Rodney Scales puts into ensuring the dining experience is without peer. Most wines were priced between $30 – $45 per bottle, with a few exceptional wines being just under $100 per bottle. Having bought some of those wines direct from the wineries, I also know that the markup on the wines is very reasonable. There are many easier ways to build a wine list, but you can discern the effort Rodney has put in to create such an outstanding wine list. You can easily have a larger list to cover your basis, but that comes with a high capital and operating cost and lower turnover of inventory. You can buy more iconic brand name wines but are paying more and then have to pass the cost onto the customer. Rodney has worked hard to find a great variety of Australian wines from NSW, VIC, and SA plus some outstanding wines from New Zealand.
Rodney has worked to perfection a wine list that matches the food he prepares and the taste of the Australian customer. He knows and can describe every wine on the list and every food dish it pairs with well. And his food menu has a recommended wine for each dish if you do not want to try to decide which wine goes best with any dish. And most wines can be bought by the glass. I had to drive an hour home so did not want to commit to an entire bottle. Yet, I had ample choice of excellent wines by the glass to match the food we were eating. I have been to restaurants with 100’s of bottles of wine on the list that only offer less than ten wines by the glass. Paymasters Cafe offered 33 out of the 52 wines on the wine list by the glass!
I noticed in July and again last night that Rodney is a chef who works the front room as well as any chef I have met. He ensures each customer’s satisfaction and is there to watch over their experience. This compares to many good chefs I know who cannot seem to leave the kitchen, either because they have not built a good team behind them or they believe it is more important to pay attention to the food (and be their own judge of if the food is OK) than how their customers are reacting to it. I have had some great chef friends who will never make it big because they cannot escape the kitchen. Rodney spends far more time in the front room than in the back and it shows in the dining experience.
And the best part came at the end when I went to pay for dinner. The price of the meal was only 50% – 60% of what I expected to pay and have paid at other comparable restaurants. Great food and great wine at a great price point! Paymasters Cafe – without peer!
What do you do when you have a cork stuck in a bottle? I have had the privilege recently to be drinking a number of bottles of wine that have been more than 25 years old. The only problem is that 25-year or older corks tend to be very soggy and are extremely difficult to remove from the bottle. The only way to be in with a chance with such an old cork is to use the Ah So corkscrew which has two prongs on the outside of the cork to provide enough friction to squeeze the cork, pulling it from the bottle’s neck. Using a center-drilling corkscrew would almost certainly destroy the cork splitting it into little bits. This is a concern in that the cork pieces are small and difficult to clean up and more importantly, you have likely introduced small cork pieces into the wine itself. While you can filter the cork bits out, it is not recommended, as the wine likely has a weak structure and could be damaged by filtering.
I had two bottles recently where the cork slid into the bottle intact, no matter how I tried to remove it. While the cork floats, if the bottle is full, the cork does not have enough air space to get out of the way when the bottle is turned over to pour. The cork wedges into the bottle neck making it impossible, or at least extremely slow and difficult to pour the wine. However, there is an easy way to deal with this – just use a chopstick! The chopstick, stuck into the bottle, easily clears enough room, getting the cork out of the way. You can then easily pour the wine into a glass or decanter and the problem is solved.
If this happens though, you should immediately empty the bottle into a decanter and then refill in another bottle (without the cork) to ensure any possibility of cork taint (not already introduced through the wine touching the bottom of the cork while cellaring) is not worsened.
A cork stuck in the bottle has happened to me about seven times now, but fortunately I have always had a chopstick on hand to help me out!
SAZ in the Cellar is now publishing three times weekly:
Sundays (Australia Sydney time) will feature reviews of wine, wineries, wine-related products, events and food / wine pairings
Tuesdays (Australia Sydney time) will be used to re-publish all-time favorite posts (from almost 200 posts over the last two years!) or posts associated with the wine lifestyle
Thursdays (Australia Sydney time) will feature #SAZTIP – a weekly tip to improve your wine drinking
#SAZTIP posts will focus on how to improve wine tasting, storage, purchasing and anything that make wine drinking a better experience! Even if you miss a post, you can just enter the #SAZTIP hashtag to find all posts and what others are saying about the posts. Finally, if you have a wine tip you want SAZ in the Cellar to share, just place the hashtag #SAZTIP in your tweet or post and we will pick it up. If judged to be worthy of sharing with others, we will do so and source it as your idea and contribution!
I am not sure if this will take off or not, but I want to use #SAZTIP to generate a community of wine related tips for everyone to use and learn. There are many wine-related hashtags including #wine, #winelover, etc. so it is a crowded and noisy space. But as SAZ in the Cellar grows and Wine Sense is released early in 2014, hopefully there will exist a body of wine drinking tips you can count on to improve your wine drinking.
#SAZTIP #1 will be released in a few hours and show you how to use a chopstick to pour wine from a bottle when the cork is stuck inside.
Happy New Year! I hope your celebration of 2014 is an enjoyable and successful one. 2013 was a tough year for many and that may cause the celebration to see it finished be one of exuberance. I hope you enjoy some great wines, regardless if you are going out or staying home. We are staying home and enjoying some 1993 Lindemans Porphyry followed by a glass of 1967 Lindemans Vintage Port to bring on the new year.
I want to make sure you have an enjoyable time, but also that you travel safe, remain safe and make it home alive. Drinking too much and driving can endanger not just yourself, but everyone around you. As a Responsible Server of Alcohol, I urge you to take every precaution to make it home safely, including:
Plan ahead and have a designated driver
Taste, don’t drink
Eat plenty of food to absorb alcohol
Use a breathalyzer, now available at many establishments
Listen to your friends and loved ones if they mention you need to be careful
Hire a cab or grab a lift with a friend if offered and there is any doubt as to your sobriety
You are responsible for yourself, your loved ones and others around you. A split second can change – or end – your life. Don’t get so caught up in celebration, that you lose control of your senses and judgment. Drive safe, keep well and have a great New Years Eve!
I often get asked the question, “Do like like Shiraz,” or “Do you like Chardonnay,” or something similar. Recently, I was asked if I like Port. I do! But what is Port? True Port wine or Vinho do Porto comes from the Douro Valley in Portugal. There are over 100 grape varietals sanctioned for making Port wine. Additionally, many other countries make Port-styled wines. With so many differences in the grapes, the regions grown and styles of Port, it is almost impossible to define what Port wine is. It comes sweet, semi-sweet and dry. It comes as single vintages (Vintage Port) or Tawney Port which is often multiple vintages aged for several years in wood and blended to provide some interesting characteristics.
The other evening my brother-in-law and his family were staying with us and we decided to drink some Port wine after dinner. I started with my regular drinking Port which is currently the 2004 Dow Vintage Port. I have one bottle of the 1977 Dow Vintage Port (for a special occasion and to drink with great pleasure over a short period of time in the not too distant future). I also have two bottles of the 2007 Dow Vintage Port which is one of the highest rated vintages ever, but those two bottles will be lying in the cellar for another 20 years or so before I touch them. The 2004 Dow Vintage Port is a very nice wine. This wine matured early and is easily drinkable now. It is fruity and has softened, especially when the bottle has been open for a while. This wine is very inexpensive ($12 – $15 per bottle in the US and about $25 – $30 per bottle in Australia) and provides for a great-valued drink. A truly wonderful drink for the money, but should be drunk over the next few years.
We then tried a bottle of Penfolds Grandfather Tawny Port. This is a non-vintaged Port blended across eight years with the vintages all being 20 years old or so. This wine was very, very smooth and had a completely different mouthfeel to the 2004 Dow Vintage Port. The Penfolds Granfather Tawny Port had a luscious, smooth feeling with caramelized, nutty sugars. The wine reminded me of the recent Christmas fruit cakes with brandy I had eaten – thick, juicy and sweet. A completely different style of Port from the 2004 Dow Vintage Port.
We then opened a bottle of the 1967 Lindemans Vintage Port. This ismy last bottle and while not quite as good as the 1954 and the 1957 Lindemans Vintage Ports I have had, it is a magnificent wine. I had some problems getting the cork out being soggy after 35 years in the bottle! Even the Ah So corkscrew was not able to help and ultimately, I ended up with the cork in the bottle. Yet, I was able to pour us a glass and we had just experienced our third very different Port that evening! The 1967 Lindemans Vintage Port was very big with plummy fruit flavors, luscious to the feel on the tongue beautiful, but slightly medicinal smells.
Therefore, when asked if I like Port, the answer is a resounding YES! I like the wide variety of Ports available from Vintage to Tawny, young and old, but particularly very old (30 years or more). Ports take on so many different identities with various flavors and styles made from so many different varietals of grapes that it is impossible to classify Port as a single type of wine. There are many different Ports, but any good Port is a great companion when sitting down in the evening and reading a good book.
Is Penfolds Grange worth the money? I certainly asked that question back in 1997 when I bought my first Grange, the newly released 1992 vintage at $200 per bottle. I was drinking some fine Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and Hunter Valley Shiraz for less than one-tenth that price. Of a total of 4,000 bottles in my cellar at peak, I never had more than eight bottles of Penfolds Grange. I only have one bottle of 1981 Grange left.
The question ‘is Grange worth it?,’ certainly depends on who you are and why you are drinking it. As I have become more comfortable with drinking quality instead of drinking brand – a concept I explore in Wine Sense – I find a lot of alternatives to Grange which are far better value. Another concept I discuss in Wine Sense is the first two things I really picked up on many years ago when starting to drink better wines: I could identify (1) good balance and (2) good mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is what happens when wine is in your mouth and felt (not tasted via your taste buds) by your palate. It is often most noticeable as tannins affix themselves to the inside of your cheeks. It is also felt through the weight of the wine (due to alcohol level and how the wine has been processed) and if the wine sits comfortably in your mouth or not.
It has been two-and-a-half years since I drank my last Grange until last week. It was the 1971 vintage which is the best Grange I have tasted. It was a special treat as the birth-year wine for my wife’s 40th birthday. This wine is featured in 1001 Wines You Must Try Before You Die by Neil Beckett. The 1971 Grange had great fruit and spice flavors, perfect balance, nuances of oak, fig and dates manifested with each swirl around your mouth, and it had great, great mouthfeel. Given the quality of the wine and event, this Grange was well worth it!
A week ago, we had another Grange, this time the 1993. While it was consumed as part of a standard weekend luncheon among friends, it is a bottle I gave to my friends when they were married several years ago and they insisted on waiting to drink it together with us. We found that opportunity last week, celebrating the birth of their new son and also reuniting with some mutual friends we had not seen for a dozen years.
The 1993 Grange is not considered one of best Grange, yet it is still an outstanding wine as every Grange is regardless of vintage. Penfolds always sources the very best grapes they can find, maintaining as much control over the quality of the grapes as they can in any given year, and year-in, year-out, Grange is made with a style that is identifiable. I was a little worried that the 1993 Grange may be at the end or beyond its best drinking life, but the cork was in perfect condition and the wine excellent. We decanted it for several hours to be served with a Persian beef fillet for the main course. We had a nice Italian Chianti on arrival followed by a 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling to go with eggplant and tomatoes and then a 2009 McLeish Reserve Chardonnay to go with chicken. Then out came the beef and the Grange!
The wine opened beautifully and came to life during two hours in the decanter. I had been sniffing the Grange to make sure it still had robust flavors and was ready to drink. It had strong plum and blackcurrant flavors and that opulent Grange style. On taking my first mouthful, it was the unique mouthfeel a Penfolds Grange provides that really struck me; full and expansive, yet not over-the-top. The wine and my mouth fused in perfect harmony. The wine did not need to be paired with beef as it was paired with my tongue and cheeks perfectly! My upcoming book Wine Sense discusses how our senses are used to appreciate and enjoy wine. We use all of our senses from our sight to smell and taste, but also feeling and even hearing wine. Our perception of taste is cross-modal and one of the wonderful things about tasting wine is how our senses of smell, taste and feeling come together to provide such a sensually fulfilling experience. With Grange, you can really feel the wine. By reputation and weight, Grange possesses strength and firmness when holding a glass of it. But it is in your mouth that Grange shows it worth. It may seem strange to talk about ‘feeling’ a wine, but you do feel Grange while drinking it. It demands being held longer in your mouth than other wines to enjoy the feeling it provides. It also demands being swallowed in several small swallows with each mouthful to make your mouth and throat muscles work, enhancing the feeling further. If there is a wine that is enjoyed by being felt, it is Grange.
I want to apologize for not writing a wine post for one month. I usually try to get one, if not two out every week. The lack of wine writing has been due (1) intentionally taking six weeks off from looking at Wine Sense, so as to scrutinize it from the reader’s view – not the writer’s view, and (2) I have been focused on building a publishing platform for the book including doing the book cover graphic design, images, formatting and layout. It is all coming together nicely for an early 2014 release.
But I have missed the constant attention to wine bloggin and will be getting back into it next week. We will be three weeks in The Hunter Valley, which has been a source for previous wine writing inspiration! It will be great to have both the time and a glass by my side most days. As Hemingway said, “Write drunk, edit sober.” I never write drunk, but do enjoy a taste or two while putting fingers to the keyboard.
I also wanted to be in The Hunter Valley to validate and finalize some of places I will be recommending for Parts Two and Three in the four-part piece on The Hunter Valley I am writing. I am certain there will be some disagreement over my choices of best places to stay and eat, but I will hopefully introduce you to some exciting new finds. There are so many great reasons to visit the Hunter Valley.
I am very excited about Wine Sense and what it has to offer. Further teasers and information will be released in the next few months which hopefully excites you to read the book. We have established a writing and publishing company, InkIT Publishing to handle our writing and training needs (yes, we are also doing an online training course on wine appreciation!), including the release of Wine Sense. I wanted to prove to myself and others that they can write and publish a book of merit without using a major publishing company. I spent the last three months analyzing and evaluating this decision and have concluded I wanted to go it alone to truly understand the process required and be able to then help others write and publish.
But for now and the next few weeks, it is back to wine blogging! I had a lovely 1993 Penfolds Grange yesterday which will be the focus of my next post!
But visiting The Hunter Valley is first and foremost about wine, so we will start there. With over 150 wineries in The Hunter Valley, there is bound to be some differences of opinion, so let me start off by saying that my recommendations do not mean I am recommending the very best wines in The Hunter Valley, even though that is a large component of my ratings. I often get asked what are the best wineries to visit, often with the qualification of wanting to find a secret or lesser known one off the beaten path, and not just be directed to the ‘big boys.’ But it would be a discredit to some of the big boys to leave them off the list. I am offering my opinions based on (1) wine quality, (2) landscape and ambiance, and (3) any other unique or interesting features to consider.
From my point of view, the clear winner as the best winery in The Hunter Valley is Tyrrell’s Wines. They are located on Broke Road in Pokolbin. This is the safest stop of any winery as they have the best wines from whites to reds and in every price range. Everyone can find a wine here they enjoy. The prices are very reasonable. Tyrrell’s is also an Australian First Families of Wine and is one of the oldest multi-generational winemaking families in Australia. They have beautiful views, are host to the annual Jazz in the Vines jazz day and concerts and provide interesting tours of the vineyards and winery.
Tyrrell’s is known for their iconic and numerously awarded Vat 1 Semillon and Vat 9 Shiraz among many great wines. The 1999 Tyrrels’ Vat 1 is listed as one of the 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die. The 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 received so many Gold medals they have to overlap them to fit them all on the bottle! They also offer a very nice loyalty program. If I do not know who the audience is who asking where to visit, I will state Tyrrell’s is a must stop. Many of the very best Australian winemakers got their start at Tyrrell’s.
#2 overall winery in The Hunter Valley: Meerea Park
Similar to Tyrrell’s, Meerea Park has excellent wines, both white and red in all price ranges. The winemaker, Rhys Eather, is one of the annointed six Next Generation Winemakers in the Hunter Valley. He makes truly outstanding wines. Their top-end Alexander Munro series museum wines will last a quarter century or longer. The biggest, best Shiraz I have ever had is the 1998 Meerea Park Alexander Munro and it is still tight at 15 years of age! On the other end is their XYZ series of wines, which are outstanding wines and great value for the money. Meerea Park just moved into the Tempus Two complex at the corner of MacDonalds and Broke Roads in Pokolbin. They also are a small family-owned business with Rhys making the wine and Garth selling it. I have learned a lot about wine just chatting with Garth who is open and friendly.
McWilliams Mount Pleasant is another winery with great selection of whites and reds in all price brackets. They have excellent Semillons and Shiraz and a very nice Muscato from Evans & Tate. They have magnificent facilities in terms of cellar door, tasting rooms, a nice restaurant, and also have some of the most beautiful vistas in The Hunter Valley. McWilliams is often a starting point of breakfast followed by a mid- or late-morning tasting before heading off elsewhere. If you are into the facilities and scenery, you would place McWilliams as #1 or #2 winery in your list of Hunter Valley wineries. One of my very favorite wines is the 2007 Maurice O’Shea Shiraz which Campbell Mattinson awarded as the best Australian Shiraz for that year. McWilliams is also in the elite Australian First Families of Wine group.
In my book, De Iuliis Wines under the ownership of Mike De Iuliis makes the best reds available. De Iuliis, year-in, year-out makes some of the best Shiraz in The Hunter Valley. He also now controls arguably the best Shiraz vineyard (Steven vineyard) in The Hunter Valley. Michael is also one of the six Next Generation Winemakers in the Hunter Valley. Visiting the cellar door at De Iuliis is a great experience. The produce great white wines also, but I focus on buying my reds from DeIuliis. They also have a nice restaurant and craft shop. De Iuliis is located on Broke Road just down past Tyrrell’s. The thing I love about De Iuliis is that you often find Michael behind the counter or just around the corner and their cellar door manager is among the most knowledgeable around. You always get great service and tastings at De Iuliis.
There is a lot of great Semillon and Chadonnay wine produced in the Hunter Valley and based on vintage, a number of wineries could qualify for this award. But overall, year-in, year-out, one of the best tasting experiences of white wines comes at Scarborough. They have two locations in the Hunter Valley and I still like the original location on Gillards Road as the best in terms of scenery and ambiance. Their newer location is on Hermitage Road. They make three quite different style Chardonnays and I personally like the White Label the best. Their tastings are one of the best run I have been involved in and it is always a privilege to bring people to Scarborough for a tasting.
View from Audrey Wilkinson winery
Best all-around visit, landscape and architecture: Audrey Wilkinson
Audrey Wilkinson’s is perched up DeBeyers Road in Pokolbin. It has beautiful vistas and the architecture and buildings are among the most beautiful of any winery in The Hunter Valley. But they would not make the list unless they had great wines also. They have some excellent whites and reds in all price ranges. Their Wrattonbully Cabernet Sauvignon is among the best I have had. This is a great place to visit, taste and take pictures.
I had heard of McLeish Estate for some time, but with so many other great Hunter Valley wineries I was already familiar with, I never made it by to try their wines. But when I read that their 2007 Reserve Semillon took global honors, I knew I had to stop by and try them out. And so glad that I did! They have an excellent lineup of wines, with the Reserve Chardonnay and Semillon really being outstanding. They also have an excellent Rose which got me drinking Rose again after 30 years and I am glad I did!
McLeish Estates is on the other side of DeBeyers Road (from Audrey Wilkinson) and behind Lake Folly’s so you know they have some excellent parcels of land for growing grapes. What I love about McLeish is that it is a true family run business. If daughter Jessica is not behind the counter, then parents Bob and Maryanne are. Bob tends the vines when not serving and Maryanne the accounts when not serving. This is a great place to visit and show your visitors you know The Hunter Valley and all of its special spots! And Andrew Thomas is the Chief winemaker, another one of the six Next Generation Hunter Valley Winemakers.
Other wineries of note and worth a visit
I have picked out 7 of the 150 or so wineries in The Hunter Valley and each deserves a visit. The other great thing about these wineries is that they are within kilometers of each other and it is possible to do all 7 in one day or over a weekend. But there are so many other good wineries to try including Lindemans, Brokenwood (both in the heart of Pokolbin), Margans (past Tyrrell’s and De Iuliis) for tasting and food, Two Rivers in the Upper Hunter Valley (about 75 minutes away), Waverley Estates for some of the best aged white wines you can find, De Bertoli for stickies, Tamburlaine for organic wines, Tintilla Estate for Sangiovese and Shiraz, and so on.
Another one I am going to try is 201 in Rothbury. They make wines out of secondary grapes such as Durif, Chambourcin, and Barbera in addition to Semillon. I have heard good things about this winery and it being another family-run labor of love. I am going to check it out next time I am in The Hunter Valley.
These are the wineries I take my visitors to first and make for a great day or weekend out. But, of course, one has to eat when drinking wine all day, so my next post on The Hunter Valley will focus on where to eat. Until them happy drinking!
