Weekend in wine country - Part I

On Friday, we packed up our rental minivan and headed out of the city to go to Hunter Valley.

We'd planned a weekend here as soon as we knew Chris and Michelle were coming because we loved our last visit so much! We also wrangled Esther and Andres into joining us too.
But before we left Sydney, we had a funny experience picking up the rental car.

I'd booked a minivan online, but when we were at the Avis counter, the lady said "Oh you've rented The Beast" in a surprised tone. She told us in great detail how big it was, how many scratches it had on it from being difficult to handle, that it had a powerful V6 so to be really careful with it, and asked us if we'd driven big cars before.... it went on and on. After awhile, Toby and I started looking at each other, wondering what exactly we'd rented and whether there had been some mistake! Finally, she took us out to the car and on the way asked us again if we had driven a big car before.

By this time, Toby and I were really concerned and started looking around for a giant van or some kind of monster SUV. But she walked us right up to a normal size minivan! Shew! She seemed reluctant to hand over the keys to us, so as politely as I could, I told her that we were from the States and were quite used to driving big, powerful cars, and in fact, driving the tiny cars around here was the more difficult adjustment. That seemed to reassure her some, so we headed off down the road in The Beast! (Which turned out to be just your average minivan... Michelle's going to post a picture on her blog.) That poor lady would not like to see the van I learned to drive in, that's for sure! =)

We started our day on Friday with a couple tastings. (It was just the four of us since the Spaniards had to work during the day.) The second of the two tastings was pretty entertaining. The man who served us was from England but had been in Australia quite a while. We were also pretty sure he'd been doing his own tastings for quite a while that day! He sloshed wine all over the place but he was really funny and knowledgeable, so it was a great start to our touring!

We had a picnic lunch on a hill overlooking some of the vineyards. Perfect setting for a picnic!

After we stopped by to check into the cabin, we headed out to do a couple more tastings before they ended for the day. Our tasting at Tatler was also really entertaining, as the man poured himself a glass along with us and "cleansed his palate" with a pint of beer between each tasting. I don't really know how that place makes any money with him behind the bar, but it was fun!

He was looking ready for a nap

We ended day one with a dinner and the arrival of the Spaniards. Chris cooked pasta, the Spaniards brought cheese and cheesecake, and we all shared some wine. It was a night full of drinking, eating, and laughing: just how it should be!

T is ready to start the party

Chris & Esther became good buddies

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