In typical fashion, a road trip to wine country in Orange and the Hunter Valley turned into a slew of random references having nothing to do with the actual event. In addition to sampling the amazing wines of Orange and the Hunter Valley, we reconnected with our childhood by watching Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 in one sitting. But we did it while drinking quality wine and gorging ourselves on awesome cheese.
Orange is one of the few cool-climate wine regions in Australia, specializing in grapes that do not fare as well in the warmer regions, such as Pinot Noir, Gewurtztraminer and Reisling. We missed snow by a few days and got incredibly beautiful weather. Upon checking in, we rushed to Bloodwood, one of the highlights of the trip with the Schubert Chardonnay and Maurice Cab Sav/Merlot blend (which also lead to singing Steve Miller Band all week).
Our best tasting came the next day at Cargo Road, where James Sweetapple gave us a full sampling and history of the vineyard. Hesitant to let us try more than a few wines at first, he quickly brought out more once he figured out we knew more than the average punter, and sat us out on the back veranda overlooking the vineyard for a good hour, sampling the wine and having a great conversation. He even made us coffee. We bought a sampling of some brilliant wines, including some of the best Gewurtz and Reisling I have had, and a true Zinfandel, not that pussy, sugary rosé shit.
Tuesday night was our food highlight of the trip at Lolli Redini. Quite possibly the best meal I have ever eaten (porcini risotto with crispy panchetta. Mmmm. And a honeycomb parfait.) Also, quite possibly the most expensive I’ve ever had. But it was well worth it, and we paired wines really well. Plus, the staff was full of cute kookaburras.
We took the scenic Putty Road through the bush to get to the Hunter, complete with fantastic scenery. We tried some new places in the Hunter, but it was the old stand by that was by far the best for me. Petersons is by far my favorite vineyard anywhere, and they are consistently amazing with just about every varietal they produce. Plus, it is always a shitload of fun to go there. When we took a second to decide what to sample, the guy says “I know what you want. EVERYTHING!” We went down the entire tasting menu, plus a few not on there, and got completely ME (mentally excited, for those of you not yet versed with this acronym). After buying more wine than could really fit in the Astra, we headed down the road to Savannah, an offshoot of Petersons. The woman there was awesome as well, and got us pretty buzzed, and gave us a pub suggestion to try and pickup at later. We were in a great mood for dinner that night, though not obnoxious. Unfortunately, three hours of dinner left us with no time to go to the pub. Alas, the girls of the Hunter Valley will never experience our awesomeness.
We took our time getting out the next day and headed to Newcastle for a night at Liz’s parents.
