{"id":1265,"date":"2019-04-30T20:49:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2019-04-30T20:49:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:49:51","slug":"first-time-in-the-hunter-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1265","title":{"rendered":"First Time in the Hunter Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long time ago, Steve made a trip to the Hunter Valley in Australia where he had his first experience in wine tasting in that country.\u00a0 How long ago?\u00a0 So long that most of the world had not yet learned that Australia was producing wines of high quality.\u00a0 Penfold\u2019s Grange and Henschke\u2019s Hill of Grace were each US$25 at that time; today they\u2019re around US$840 at one of the better wine stores in New York.\u00a0 Even considering inflation, these wines are no longer the bargains they were then.<\/p>\n

The Hunter Valley is a drive up the coast from Sydney to the town of Pokolbin.\u00a0 As in many big cities, the stars were difficult to see at night in Sydney, but out in Wine Country, the sky was ablaze with them.\u00a0 You can see the Southern Cross in the darkness of a country night.\u00a0 Frankly, it\u2019s a bit disappointing.\u00a0 It\u2019s a nice constellation, but so is the Big Dipper (which is easier for us Northern Hemispherians to find).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Blaxland Inn, Pokolbin.\u00a0 Photo courtesy the restaurant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Across from the hotel, there was a restaurant called Blaxland Barn, today known as the Blaxland Inn.\u00a0 Sitting down at the table, the hostess asked if he wanted a damper.\u00a0 Hmmm, what\u2019s a damper?\u00a0 It\u2019s an iconic Australian bread, somewhat like Irish soda bread, associated with swagmen in the Outback.\u00a0 And what\u2019s a swagman?\u00a0 He\u2019s an itinerant farm worker or in some cases what we would call a hobo.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever heard Waltzing Matilda<\/em>, you know all about swagmen.<\/p>\n

When it came to ordering wine with dinner, everything on the list was simply an unknown name.\u00a0 So the hostess was asked to help. \u00a0She hemmed and hawed a bit and then said, \u201cWell (pronounced wail<\/em> in those quarters) there is one but it\u2019s a bit dear.\u00a0 Oh, but not for you.\u201d\u00a0 She must have figured that anyone who could afford to travel to the Hunter Valley all the way from America could afford ten Aussie bucks for a bottle of wine.\u00a0 That\u2019s what prices were like in those days.\u00a0 It was a Tulloch Shiraz and it was exceptional.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tulloch winery today, not at all what it was back then.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of vineyard.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next day the serious wine tasting began, starting with Tulloch\u2019s.\u00a0 Other wineries visited included Tyrell\u2019s and Lindeman\u2019s.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to tell after all this time whether these were top places to go or just the ones known about at the time.\u00a0 But the welcome that an American wine enthusiast received was wonderful.\u00a0 Servers opened all sorts of bottles, pouring out verticals and horizontals all day.<\/p>\n

There are a few lessons to be learned, even if you never visit Australia and if you will not be as surprised to find high-quality wine there.\u00a0 Just get used to the fact that you\u2019re a babe in the woods regarding these wines unknown to you and let your hosts (and you nose and tongue) be your guides.\u00a0 This bit of advice applies whenever you visit someplace you\u2019ve never been before, trying wines you\u2019ve never heard of.\u00a0 Sure, sometimes you\u2019ll be disappointed.\u00a0 But just as often, you\u2019ll have the chance for wonderful discoveries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A long time ago, Steve made a trip to the Hunter Valley in Australia where he had his first experience in wine tasting in that country.\u00a0 How long ago?\u00a0 So long that most of the world had not yet learned that Australia was producing wines of high quality.\u00a0 Penfold\u2019s Grange and Henschke\u2019s Hill of Grace … Continue reading First Time in the Hunter Valley<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}