Winery

So. We've finished our tasting for our Hunter Valley trip. We visited sixteen wineries over four days (technically five days, but the first day we only went to one). We purchased a total of 7 cases of wine (give or take), plus an extra case for Tanja's mother (who gets a mixed dozen of wines from all over the Hunter, tasted by her personal experts, without having to leave her house, the lucky devil). We've dined at some lovely fancy (and also some lovely proletarian) restaurants and cafes. We tasted cheeses for the first time, coming home with some mixed sheep's-, goat's- and cow's-milk cheeses, and a new cheese knife set.

Some observations:

• Many of the fancy restaurants have changed their signs to read “Restaurant and Cafe” in order to not seem too intimidating or expensive.
  
• Many of the people operating the cellar doors seemed more eager to offer older vintages that weren't on the tasting list if you showed an interest. For example, if they offered a 2008 Semillon and a 2003 Semillon, and you said you preferred the 2003, they would likely pullout a 2001 or 1999 Sem they had under the counter. Tanja and I discussed this and decided it was either A) the financial crisis driving them to push high-end stock, B) that we simply showed taste beyond your average punter and they figured we were in the market for the older, more expensive, higher quality drops, or C) some combination of the two.
  
• Several of the wineries (specifically Peterson's Champagne House) seem to be geared towards the bus-loads of women on Hen's Night or Bachelorette trips. They have purple couches to sit on, are pushing their sweetest styles, have pre-mixed cocktail mixes or pink plastic martini shakers for sale, and, in one egregious case, sprayed bubbles from the ceiling. Yech.
  
• There were quite a few younger couples on their own like we were, and tons of Canadians and Americans.
  
• Lots of high-end cars on the road. At last count, two Ferraris (one vintage, one new), a Maserati, a Ford GT, two Porsches (one Carrera, one SUV), a supercharged and customised Ford F150, and a large number of BMWs and Mercedes (to be expected).
  
• Leaving your proper camera at home sucks, but frees you up from dragging it around or bothering your partner by making them wait for you to get a picture.
  
• Apart from the Champagne house, we tasted only one sparkling wine, and bought none. Go figure.
  

Standout wineries were:

• Keith Tulloch (the only place we bought a full case at)
  
• Margan
  
• Pigg's Peake
  
• Tower Estate
  

We visited all four of these wineries last trip(a year and a half ago) and bought sparingly. On the flipside, the wineries we bought quite a bit from last time impressed us with only two or three varietals, and sometimes none at all.

So yes! All done with the Hunter for a little while.