We had so much fun today. We left Lesley's around 10 this morning and headed to The Hunter Valley. This valley is one of three major wine regions in Australia and is less than two hours from Lesley’s place. We got into the town of Cessnok just before noon and stopped at the Historic Royal Oak Hotel for lunch. We picked up some maps and brochures on the area and got some limited advice from our Server and off we went to explore.

The First Vineyard we visited was Ernest Hill. We were warmly greeted by one of the owners. We had the place to ourselves so she gave us the VIP treatment. We tasted several wines and the owner lady gave us a book about the region and a better map and circled the good places for us to go. Ernest Vineyard is considered a boutique winery, meaning that you can only buy their wines at their cellar door. They make small batches not for distribution. They specialize in Semillion, Shiraz and dessert wines. We sat on their beautiful flowered terrace tucked into the rolling hills and enjoyed ourselves very much. Eric and I bought a bottle of Tempranillo.

Next we stopped at The Peterson House Winery and Hunter Valley Chocolate Company. Yep, that’s right, wine and chocolate in the same place. The Peterson House specializes in sparkling wine. We tasted several different varieties, none of which thrilled us. They weren’t bad but they weren’t great either. So we moved on to chocolate which they did very well. We bought several little chocolate bites in different flavors to have after dinner and moved down the road.

Our next stop was Hungerford Hill Vineyard. They had the most unique building. It looked like a giant wine cask. We again had the place to ourselves and the cellar door (Australian for tasting room) attendant was very knowledgeable and friendly. She had a Vinturi wine aerator and she let us taste a couple wines poured straight from the bottle and also poured through the aerator. It was amazing how much better it tasted after being aerated. This was equivalent to decanting for 5 hours and removes over 80% of the sulfates which according to the nice lady prevents you from over-hanging (Australian for hangover.) Eric and I purchased a Shiraz Liqueur. This is a fortified style wine that is a cross between Shiraz and Brandy. It is a dessert liquor that paired very nicely with our chocolates. Lesley purchased a macadamia nut and chilli Dukkah. Dukkuh is a combination of spices and/or crushed nuts that you dip bread into after dipping in olive oil. It comes in many varieties and is delicious.

Next we went to Ballabourneen. This was by far the most beautiful and exciting stop of the day. They had a couple of old fashioned claw bathtubs out front that were converted into couches. We all posed and snapped pictures before going into the cellar door. By now we have had a bit of wine and we are all giggly and very happy. We tried their wine and Ryan purchased a Cabernet-Merlot-Petit Verdot Blend. This winery also had olive oil and vinegar tastings. The Hunter Valley also has a good number of olive groves as well as vineyards. We ended up buying four types of gourmet olive oil; pepper, red chilli, truffle and wasabi.

Just as we were about to move on, someone popped their head in the cellar door and said there was a giant troop of kangaroos in the field below. We grabbed our cameras and headed out back to check it out. It was amazing. There were approximately 25 that we could see in the tall grasses. We all slowly made our way across the field towards them. Ryan and I got to within 25 yards before they hopped away. This is by far one of the highlights of the trip so far.

By now we decided we should start thinking about dinner. We spotted a place called The Smelly Cheese Shop on the map and headed there to pick up supplies for the condo. We decided to eat-in tonight and enjoy some of the wine and oils we bought during our travels today.

There was, of course, a cellar door next to The Smelly Cheese Shop, so we had one last tasting for the day. The Tempus Two’s specialty was Shiraz and they did it very well. Eric and I purchased a limited edition award winning bottle. They only made 60 cases of this particular batch and we had to talk them into selling us a bottle even though we were not members of their club. We are going to attempt to get this one home to Colorado with us.

We then headed back down the road to The Potters Brewery and Spa Resort. Seems like a strange combo but that is where we have reservations tonight. We arrived just as an employee fancy dress party was kicking off. Fancy Dress is Australian for masquerade. Everyone that works here was half in the bag and dressed for Halloween. We were very entertained by it all. We got checked into our two bedroom villa and ate our dinner we had gathered along the way. Dinner ended up being cheese, crackers, homemade artisan breads, olives, feta cheese stuffed cherry peppers, eggplant bruschetta, tomato kasaundi, roasted soy beans, exotic flavored olive oils, macadamia nut and chilli dukkah and chocolate. Everything was made locally which was very impressive to us. We also broke into a couple of bottles of wine.

After dinner we decided to go explore the grounds of the resort. We ended up at the main building and discovered they had a lighted Boules Court. Boules is very similar to Bocce so Eric, Ryan and I played a round. We played our rules instead of theirs and the bartender came outside and yelled at us that we were playing wrong. We did not care and continued on. It was a close game but in the end I won.

We had such a great time today that we booked ourselves in for a second night. We are leaving the Brewery though because nothing has been updated or replaced since 1978. There is a beautiful Crown Plaza Golf Resort next door that I was able to trade in points for a couple of free rooms. Yeah!