Many people ask me how to get the best experience out of a winery visit, so here are some pointers.
* First, a bit of research. Having a wine guide like James Halliday's isn't essential - just drop into the region's information centre for a winery map.
* Read the information booklet for a bit of description about the different cellar doors and try to come up with a mix of larger and smaller ones. The bigger operations often hold tours where you get to see behind the scenes, learn how the wine is made, maybe succumb to a little romance thanks to the well-funded facilities. But the smaller outfits are the ones to seek out. If you're lucky you may be served by the winemaker him/herself, so here's your chance to hear them explain all of the elements in their creation. Interested cellar door staff aren't restricted to boutique wineries, but you're more likely to get a quieter moment at smaller ones where the server can spend a bit of time talking you through the range. If they're family of the winemaker they probably have a bit of investment in making sure you get the most out of their wines. Besides, you're more likely to get served a bit of the extra "not for tasting" drops if you aren't sharing the tasting room with a crowd.
* If you see a tour bus in the car park, leave immediately. Being inside a crowded tasting room is no fun. You don't want to be trying to catch the pourer's attention, and you won't learn much if they are too busy to talk to you. Come back another time.
* Don't overplan your trip - allow for serendipity. Perhaps a dusty, unsealed lane will entice, or a wending drive up a vine-covered slope, or a particularly fetching, ramshackle winery building. The places you arrive at without any expectations are often the find of the trip.
* Don't squeeze too many into one day. Four or five should be the absolute maximum, otherwise all the samples will start to taste the same (and your designated driver will be over the limit)
* Don't rush in order to fill up on free drinks. Apart from being boorish, you'll have more fun if you enjoy the cool of the tasting rooms and the country surrounds at a langourous pace. Should you be lead outdoors and given a seat beneath a vine-covered pergola and invited to share some wine, why rush?
* Ask questions and show interest in the cellar door and you'll often be rewarded with a lot of wine knowledge. Can there be a more enjoyable method of self-education than this, with glass in hand?
* When you walk into a winery you'll be asked what you'd like to taste, but unless you only drink whites or reds, start at the top and go through the list. They'll tend to start you off on dry whites, work through to the reds and finish with sweet and/or fortified. Be adventurous - try ones you think you don't like. Chances are, with somebody explaining the wine to you and in the spot in which it was made, you'll see something in the glass to admire.
* Ask what the winery are proudest of, or what they are well known for. Ask the winemaker what taste or effect they were trying to go for. Ask how the climate and the winemaking decisions contributed to the finished product. Ask if their wines are estate grown or if they buy in fruit, and why. Ask what types of wines they like to drink and whether they are trying to emulate them.
* One way of cutting down on the volume of alcohol consumed is for you and your companion to try only one glass of each wine on offer. This allows you to share glasses and compare different years or different versions if available. Many Hunter wineries, for example, do at least two different styles of shiraz. Taste them both, and discern the differences. Ask why they taste they way they do.
* Don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to. You don't have to be a show off and demonstrate your wine knowledge (in fact, please don't. You wouldn't want somebody from a different industry to walk into your office and tell you about your job, would you?)
* Finally, it's polite to buy at least one bottle before you leave to help subsidise your free tastings. Unless you really, really hated the wine, or in the rare case that the staff abandoned you when other customers turned up.
* Once you're finished, hang out in the winery's garden or make use of their picnic tables. Buy a bottle and have them uncork it - wine always tastes best when drunk at the winery. Hunter Valley wineries don't as a rule have cafes attached, but you can bring a lunch or some bread and cheese from the Cessnock supermarket. Entrepreneurs take note: Cessnock needs an upscale deli with takeaway lunch hampers.
What do you love about the cellar door experience? What bugs you? What magical winery moments? have you had?
This post first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald.
* Read the information booklet for a bit of description about the different cellar doors and try to come up with a mix of larger and smaller ones. The bigger operations often hold tours where you get to see behind the scenes, learn how the wine is made, maybe succumb to a little romance thanks to the well-funded facilities. But the smaller outfits are the ones to seek out. If you're lucky you may be served by the winemaker him/herself, so here's your chance to hear them explain all of the elements in their creation. Interested cellar door staff aren't restricted to boutique wineries, but you're more likely to get a quieter moment at smaller ones where the server can spend a bit of time talking you through the range. If they're family of the winemaker they probably have a bit of investment in making sure you get the most out of their wines. Besides, you're more likely to get served a bit of the extra "not for tasting" drops if you aren't sharing the tasting room with a crowd.
* If you see a tour bus in the car park, leave immediately. Being inside a crowded tasting room is no fun. You don't want to be trying to catch the pourer's attention, and you won't learn much if they are too busy to talk to you. Come back another time.
* Don't overplan your trip - allow for serendipity. Perhaps a dusty, unsealed lane will entice, or a wending drive up a vine-covered slope, or a particularly fetching, ramshackle winery building. The places you arrive at without any expectations are often the find of the trip.
* Don't squeeze too many into one day. Four or five should be the absolute maximum, otherwise all the samples will start to taste the same (and your designated driver will be over the limit)
* Don't rush in order to fill up on free drinks. Apart from being boorish, you'll have more fun if you enjoy the cool of the tasting rooms and the country surrounds at a langourous pace. Should you be lead outdoors and given a seat beneath a vine-covered pergola and invited to share some wine, why rush?
* Ask questions and show interest in the cellar door and you'll often be rewarded with a lot of wine knowledge. Can there be a more enjoyable method of self-education than this, with glass in hand?
* When you walk into a winery you'll be asked what you'd like to taste, but unless you only drink whites or reds, start at the top and go through the list. They'll tend to start you off on dry whites, work through to the reds and finish with sweet and/or fortified. Be adventurous - try ones you think you don't like. Chances are, with somebody explaining the wine to you and in the spot in which it was made, you'll see something in the glass to admire.
* Ask what the winery are proudest of, or what they are well known for. Ask the winemaker what taste or effect they were trying to go for. Ask how the climate and the winemaking decisions contributed to the finished product. Ask if their wines are estate grown or if they buy in fruit, and why. Ask what types of wines they like to drink and whether they are trying to emulate them.
* One way of cutting down on the volume of alcohol consumed is for you and your companion to try only one glass of each wine on offer. This allows you to share glasses and compare different years or different versions if available. Many Hunter wineries, for example, do at least two different styles of shiraz. Taste them both, and discern the differences. Ask why they taste they way they do.
* Don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to. You don't have to be a show off and demonstrate your wine knowledge (in fact, please don't. You wouldn't want somebody from a different industry to walk into your office and tell you about your job, would you?)
* Finally, it's polite to buy at least one bottle before you leave to help subsidise your free tastings. Unless you really, really hated the wine, or in the rare case that the staff abandoned you when other customers turned up.
* Once you're finished, hang out in the winery's garden or make use of their picnic tables. Buy a bottle and have them uncork it - wine always tastes best when drunk at the winery. Hunter Valley wineries don't as a rule have cafes attached, but you can bring a lunch or some bread and cheese from the Cessnock supermarket. Entrepreneurs take note: Cessnock needs an upscale deli with takeaway lunch hampers.
What do you love about the cellar door experience? What bugs you? What magical winery moments? have you had?
This post first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald.
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