Travelogue Day 36

29/6/06

I stayed up too late and woke up early, so I fell asleep for a few minutes on the trip up. The Hunter Valley YHA is pretty nice. I took one of the bikes out and managed to visit (only) three of the nearby wineries. I sampled a number of wines, some of the standouts of which were: Ernest Hill's semillon and verdelho, Capercaille's slainte, "The Clan" cabernet sauvignon, and "The Ghillie" shiraz, and Allandale's '05 semillon and '03 Matthew shiraz. All of these are boutique wineries, so it will be unlikely I'll find their wines in any bottle shops.

Allandale also has what amounts to a white cooking wine made from pre-ripe semillon grapes called verjuice. It sounds interesting. Also, I'm told semillon ages well in the bottle, so I could probably indulge my tendencies and let it sit for years (because, realistically, when would I get another Ernest Hill semillon?).

I'll be trying the pub fare and microbrews at Potter's Brewery tonight for dinner. If the beers are like the wines, I won't be disappointed.

Everyone at the YHA is quite agreeable. Greg(?) is nice, and Tim was generous enough to share a '78 vintage port. The other guests seem a bit like me, nice enough, but you have to get past their initial apprehensiveness with new people.

I'm eating dinner at the Potter's Brewery Bistro. I got the chicken and beer kebabs. The chicken is mediocre; the Greek salad is rather good. I also got the beer sampler of this brewery's microbrews. The IPA is as to be expected. The Kolsch, lager, and bock are good. The ginger beer (alcoholic, not the root beer stuff) is very interesting. I'm saving it for last as I'm not sure how it will mix with the meal. Overall, I'd say it's worth around the $18.50 (thank you $5 voucher from YHA I paid.

Now to try to pace the eating and drinking, so I'm not too full when I leave at approximately 19:30.

I didn't succeed. I ate everything on my plate (the chicken remained mediocre at best, the chips were (average) good, and I rather liked the Greek salad). I couldn't finish the sampler. The ginger beer was just a little too not-my-style for me to drink.