November 5th, 2005 – Aspirating the pallet

We woke up at 6:00am to leave ourselves enough time to shower and head over to the Novotel in Darling Harbor. Unfortunately, the hot water tank was still not working properly and we were forced to wash ourselves bidet style, splashing water for the most part. By 10 am we had arrived at our first vineyard; Rothbury. After an encounter with a wild Kangaroo off in the field, a stout bald man treated us to a surprisingly interesting wine lesson ranging from proper tasting techniques, to how the peel of the grapes and bacterial content from different harvest times is used to create different hues of red wine. We must have tried close to a dozen tasters which were at least three swigs each, one to cleanse the pallet and the other two to savor the taste trying desperately to taste the mango, plum, coconut and caramel flavors that we were expecting with the different bottles. We headed over to the Rosemont next, which was surprisingly small and meager considering the international popularity of the winery. We discovered later that where we tasting was really just a holding area. The Rosemont prepares the finest wines of Australia each in the respective climate; some in South Australia, some in the Hunter and others in Queensland. Next was an Olive center at the Pimbleke where we all devoured the tasting bread in the fantastic dipping sauces. We skipped over the winery as it was mostly sparkling wines that none of us were particularly fond of. We took a lunch break in the Hunter village, a tourist trap resembling Tremblant. We had packed a bag lunch and enjoyed it outside in front of a small gazebo where a local girl was singing Sarah Maclachlan tunes alone with her guitar. The Hunter Cellars was a corporation that sells a couple of local wines, although the name of the different brewing companies slips my mind, I do recall McGuigans, Zippy and one that used the labels to depict the type of meal to accompany with the wine; seafood, beef etc. all hidden throughout the label. Then it was off to the Cheese factory and its accompanying distillery. The Cheese was excellent and we had a bunch of tasters, some of which blew me away by their potency, blue and mild rind. The cellar next door was more of the same. By this time in the day we had discovered that if we all showed enthusiasm about a different style of wine, then we could try them all! We were experts in getting a complete line of wines from dry white, woody white, Rose a couple of reds and then a dessert wine and usually a glass of Tawny port. Needless to say by the end of the day we were considerably tipsy, although not completely gone having spaced our drinking from 10 am onwards. We pitched in with Ben, Amy and Charlotte and got 12 bottles for 99$ from the first vineyard we all had come to appreciate more having visited the others. On the bus we proceeded to polish off 3 more bottles. Once at home, realizing that we had passed the point of savoring the good quality wines, we broke out the boxed wines to finish off the evening with Domino Pizza before passing out at 11:30 from a long day of tasting.