"Heart of the Hunter Val ..." a Pokolbin Travel Page by aussiedoug

Yes dear reader Pokolbin is not a town or city as such, but is I believe very much the heart of the Hunter Valley Wine Region.

If you're interested in learning a bit more of this area's history then drop by my friend iandsmith's Pokolbin page where he goes into quite a bit of detail given he comes from just down the road in Newcastle.

Dare I say yet again here on VT, "Funny how things happen". I say this in respect to the Hunter Valley because even though I've now been living in Sydney going on 30 years I know the Barossa Valley (in South Australia) pretty well. I know Rutherglen (in Victoria near where my wife's family comes from on the NSW/Vic border) really well. I/We've also visited the Clare Valley (South Australia), the Yarrra Valley (Victoria) & Margaret River (in Western Australia). Yet, we've only driven through parts of the Hunter on ou way somewhere else so know it barely in comparison to the other Australian wine regions I've mentioned above.

So. leading on from above, these last schoo holidays I thought we could get to know the Hunter Valley a little better.

On our way north we had a half day in the Hunter &, after visiting the Information Centre we had lunch at Harrigan's Irish Pub then pushed on to drive through Wliderness Road, Lovedale with the intention of visiting Ogishi Glass Works then Emma's Cottage Vineyards plus a couple of others.

But, yes you knew that was coming didn't you, being a Tuesday, neither of those places was opened.so we kept driving along Wilderness Road to we came to the lovely little spot you can see in this photo. Wandin Valley Estate Wines. After tasting a range of their wines we ended up buying a mixed dozen of whites & reds.

When it was time for my twin girls & I to head back to Sydney I thought we'd have a night in the Hunter Wine Region & a day exploring to get to know it better & develop a better feel for it.

I discovered that much of the accommodation is not overly suited to travelling with twin 6 year old girls. So much is B&B's & lots of upmarket options for couple and/or groups of people. The bigger resorts were the only ones so this gave me a choice of 3 that were reasonably affordable. Ringing the Hunter Resort on Thursday afternoon for a Friday night stay saw an offer of a room for $110 (down from the rack rate of $190) for a night's stay & including a Winery Tour (on-site) which I was unfortunately not abel to avail myself of because children under 10 were not allowed.

This was a good choice of accommodation as it was in the opposite corner of the Hunter to which we had passed through & week & a half earlier on our way north. Also there were about half a dozen wineries & about 3 galleries I wanted to visit either a short drive before there or not too far after there.

Yes, I'm getting to know, & appreciate, the Hunter Valley Wine Region a lot better already & am looking forward to us having a weekend up there sooner rather than later.