The Hunter Valley is a pastoral location offering visitors a taste of the finer things in life. Leisurely meals and evenings spent sipping the valley’s signature Shiraz, chardonnay and other premium wines are major draws for visitors. Most people staying here find that they visit Hunter Valley wineries and vineyards at least once during their holidays.
The choice of wineries is staggering and if people doing the rounds of them kept moving they could enjoy wine tasting all day long. Pokolbin is the very heart of the winery region and a good place to start sampling for viticulture buffs. Brokenwood Wines operates two imaginatively named vineyards, the Graveyard and the Cricket Pitch. The cellar door is housed in the original winery structure.
Kelman Vineyard is another Pokolbin favourite with locals and visitors alike. Kelman boasts a 23-acre vineyard on the way out to Mount View. Viticulture specialists grow grape varieties including chardonnay and muscat.
The moscato wine is a pleasant mix of muscat grapes and available for tasting at the cellar door. National producer Pepper Tree Wines also has a vineyard and winery cellar door in the environs of Mount View.
The McLeish Estate is another of the other fascinating Hunter Valley wineries and vineyards. The estate’s winemakers produce prize-winning wines from grapes grown and hand-picked from their own vines. The chance of tasting the produce while munching on yummy home-made delicacies has made the McLeish Estate a very popular destination.
Bimbadgen enjoys a hillside location north of Pokolbin. It is the ultimate destination for aficionados of the produce of the grape. A landmark bell tower indicates the route in. Bimbadgen is noted for its sparkling and archetypal Hunter Valley wines. The estate has a homestead with guest rooms, a cellar door where visitors can taste and buy wines, and a café. The menu at the Esca Bimbadgen restaurant is a testament to home-cooking and only uses locally sourced ingredients.
