Today started off with Lesley finding $50 and announcing that lunch was on her. Well, really it was on the poor sap that can't keep track of their money but either way, free lunch. Yeah! We figure that was a good sign of great day to come.

We checked out of the semi run down Potter's Brewery and Spa Resort (blah) and checked into the very swanky Crowne Plaza Golf Resort next door. The manager came out to personally welcome us and to upgrade us to a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen/dining/living area. It pays to be platinum members. We were laughing that Lesley's car was not as fancy as all the rest of the cars at the new resort. This is where high rollers in the Hyundai started and it became a running joke for the rest of the day.

After we checked into The Crowne we went back to Potter’s and did the brewery tour with beer tasting. Our tour guide was a quirky girl named Billy that told us about brewing and showed us around their small facility. She was entertaining and was happy to talk to people that knew a little something about brewing. There beer was ok. Nothing to get too excited about.

Bimbadgen was the next stop on our tour today. Bimbadgen is an aboriginal word that means many great views. They had one of the nicest settings in The Hunter Valley. We tasted their wines which were quite good. Ryan bought a bottle of Shiraz-Voignier and Eric and I bought a bottle of sparkling Semillion. This was the first sparkling we really liked from The Hunter Valley. We sat on the deck behind the tasting room and had lunch. The views were amazing and the food was really good for the price. Some of the vineyards have restaurants but starting prices for lunch are $50 per person. This is a bit much when you are running from vineyard to vineyard trying wine and snacks and you just need a sandwich to get you through. Lunch came to $51 total so we spent $1. Perfect!

Our next stop was Brokenwood. They had a bunch of Shiraz and Shiraz blends that tasted pretty much like all the rest of the Shiraz we had tried over the last few days. The best part of this stop was the cute polish girl that was the cellar room attendant. Ryan enjoyed talking with her.

Our next stop was Tamburlaine Wines. This one stood out to me from the beginning because it is an organic vineyard. They have been organic for 21 years and received their certification 3 years ago. This was one of the most welcoming and cozy vineyards we visited. Some of them are very nice but a bit stuffy. This one had a campy, organic feel to it. We loved their wines. They all had a clean, crisp taste to them that was different from all the rest we had tried over the past two days. Eric and I bought a Wine Lovers Limited Edition Shiraz, a Reserve Framboise Dessert Wine and a Muscato for Lesley to thank her for driving us around.

We made a quick pit stop at the Olive Center so I could get some olives for Ray and I. Ray is the only other person in our group that really likes olives. I got plain kalamata’s and chilli lime kalamata’s and a roasted mushroom and olive spread for us to enjoy together over the weekend.

The last stop of the day was Audrey Wilkinson. Ryan really wanted to go here because someone along the way told us that they had a Red Zinfandel. We did see a couple more kangaroos on our way to this vineyard which was cool. We rolled in right as they were closing but they let us sample anyway. They did not have any Red Zin. The best part of this winery was the old pictures on the walls and the grand tasting room table.

We drove into the town of Cessnock and picked up a few things at the grocery store for brekkie (Australian for breakfast) and went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. It was really nice to have a spicy meal after all the wines we tasted today.

We got back to the hotel and Ryan immediately took a nap on the couch in our living room. Apparently we wore him out. Lesley, Eric and I went for a walk around the resort and found a vegetable garden. We pinched a little basil for brekkie and decided we should ask before we took anything else. We are hoping at checkout tomorrow they will let us harvest some veggies to take with us.