June 29, 2018
I didn’t sleep very well last night, Rich was snoring like a freight train and I had a lot of anxiety and my mind just wouldn’t stop. I was up at 4:30 this morning, so I am getting a little better, lol! We were ready for the day and down at the restaurant for breakfast by 6, just to find out that they don’t open until 6:30 a.m. Not cool, as they should know, people with jet lag are going to be up at ungodly, early hours and may want to eat before 6:30 a.m. ;). We counted the minutes and were back down at 6:30 on the dot. We had a wine tour today, with an early 7:30 a.m. pick up by our driver, we had to get our tummies full in order to consume large amounts of wine today!
The driver picked us up at the hotel promptly at 7:30. He was a very sweet, older gentleman and was busy sharing information about Sydney with us as we drove through on the way to our wine tours in Hunter Valley. He was telling us stories about his youth and pointing out where he used to live and ride his bike with his friends, it was all very sweet. He was telling us a story about a friend of his that was best friends with Mel Gibson and how Mel really is a nice, generous guy, no matter how the media tries to portray him. I am definitely on team Mel after hearing the stories he had to tell!
The drive took about 2 1/2 hours and we finally arrived at the first winery a little before 10 a.m. I guess they want you to start really early, so that you can get a full day of drinking in, they have us scheduled for three different wineries today, so I don’t think we will be feeling any pain by the time we head back to Sydney.
The first stop on the wine tour was Mount View Estates Winery in the Mount View region of Hunter Valley, hence the name. ;). It was just the two of us and the guy working there, so we decided to sit outside. It was pretty chilly out, but the sun was shining and we wanted to enjoy the scenery. The wind was blowing everything off of the table and the chairs over, but we pushed through, lol. We talked with the guy and I asked a lot of questions that I had always wanted to know the answers to and he was more than happy to answer. Then we started in on the tastings. A couple of whites in, we decided that we wanted to jump to the good stuff, the reds! Neither of us were fans of whites at the time, but I can tell you that I did start to drink more white wine by the end of our Australia trip. Anyway, since it was just the two of us, he was very accommodating and let us try almost all of the reds that they made, instead of just a few as it was supposed to be. About 3/4 of the way through our driver shows up and tells us that we are late and need to leave for the second wine tour. I had no idea we were on a tight schedule and were doing these so fast. We hadn’t even been there for 40 minutes. Obviously the idea of the day was to throw back wine as fast as we can and move on. Anyhow, we quickly finished as our driver rushed us out of there and we moved onto the second stop. By this time I am starting to get a buzz, so I am happy that we get lunch on the next stop.
The second stop on the wine tour was Leogate Estate, owned by a couple that liked wine and decided to quit their day jobs and buy a winery 10 years ago. I told Rich, maybe this could be our next venture?! LOL. We got there and they had a table set for us with white wine, cheese, crackers and smoked trout. The smoked trout was actually very good and of course I had to eat as much of the cheese that I could by myself. Poor me! They came around and filled our wine glasses with a red this time to prepare us for lunch. At this point, I really don’t even want to drink anymore wine and it isn’t even noon. We go out for a tour of the place where they keep the barrels of wine, letting them age and mixing them together…what is that room called? Sorry! After that we went back to have lunch. It was family style and our driver joined us for the lunch. Very good, but drank too much wine again. Luckily as soon as our lunch was over, it was time to move onto the final winery. I know we get chocolate at this next one!
Our final stop for the day was the Keith Tulloch Winery. Here we were sat at a cute little table upstairs and were each given a plate of handmade chocolates and the deal here was that they would pair a different with each of the five chocolates. The chocolates were so pretty (hand painted) that I didn’t even want to eat them. The first chocolate was very good, the wine went down, but I am really starting to feel this. Joking around with the wine connoisseur, I am definitely feeling pretty good. The second chocolate wasn’t as good as the first, and the third on, I just took a bite and then passed them onto Rich. I don’t like chocolates with fruit in the middle, yuck! I continued to be a good girl and drink all of my wine, until the last one, which was a dessert wine. I don’t like dessert wines at all, they are way too sweet. I took a tiny sip, because by this time, with all of the wine and the chocolates, I am starting to get a stomach ache and I am ready to head back to the hotel. I disliked the final wine, just as I knew I would and just poured it out into the pitcher. I am ready to get out of here.
We get in the car and start the long 2 1/2 hour journey back to the hotel. At this point, I’m tired, I have a stomach ache, I have restless leg syndrome and I am just overall wishing that we would have stayed at the hotel this morning. The drive was excruciatingly long and by the time we got back to the hotel, I headed straight up to our room, laid down and zonked out. I slept for about an hour and woke up thinking that we should get up and go out for dinner or something, but I didn’t feel good, my stomach wasn’t liking me at all right now. I put my pajamas on (I think it is around 5:30 now), laid back down and told Rich that we were going to order room service. I wasn’t leaving this room again. We ordered room service, I sat down to eat, but nothing tasted good, I wasn’t feeling right, so I just gave up and went to bed for the night. It isn’t even 7 p.m. yet.
The moral of the story here is that full day wine tours aren’t as fun as they sound. We would have definitely preferred to stick around Sydney and walk around and see more sights today. We have another wine tour scheduled when we go to Melbourne and we have already agreed that we are cancelling that one. One wine tour on this vacation is enough for the two of us!
