Mudgee Wine Region
Mudgee is a wine region 3.5 hrs drive from Sydney that is increasingly rivalling the well established Hunter region as a place to go for a good drop. September was its annual Food and Wine Festival, and that was the reason for our 3 day trip. With over 35 cellar doors, we managed to get through around 11 in 3 days. Highlights were:
1. Blue Wren wines – the friendliest service from the winemakers, without a doubt. They had an amazing white port, which is served to you on ice, with a squeeze of lime. Quite the pep up after breakfast, it was sweet without being sickly, and sooo refreshing. Also makes a delicious verjuice for the non-drinkers in your party.
2. Logan Wines - we stopped here for a coffee and lounged around reading the paper in the overhanging glass room looking over the winery.
3. Farmer’s Daughter Wines – also lovely service from the Farmer’s daughter and had a delicious pink moscato – really sweet and goes down really well as dessert on its own.
4. Oatley Wines – great combination of food tastings and wine, and attentive service also.
5. Elliot Rocke (right)- trendiest place, try the ice wine – dessert wine made with frozen grapes. But the staff informed me they are not frozen on the vine like some NZ varieties.
6. Burrundulla Vineyards – delicious whites and has an art gallery too.
7. High Valley Wine and Cheese Co – apparently has a great breakfast, but sadly, we missed it 
Other places worth checking out: Mudgee Honey Haven to try Mead – which is a honey alcohol, from which the term honeymoon is coined. They also sell a honey ale and honey ginger ale and there are over 15 varieties of honey to taste from creamed honey with chocolate and strawberry through it, to my first taste of honeycomb!
We learned all about olive oils and tasted such pure oils at Offa Olives – set amongst a grove of olive trees, we were taught that when swished around your teeth, it doesn’t feel oily at all, and it wasn’t!
For places to eat lunch, I highly recommend Elton’s, which is on Market Street. Very inexpensive and Sydney quality cafe (sorry to be posh 
) compared to the milk bar type places that are typical in other country towns.
My advice is to hurry and visit before the secret catches on, and it is no longer the quaint, intimate region that it is, and before it becomes too commercialised.
http://www.visitmudgeeregion.com.au/j/index.php
October 14th, 2008 at 12:02 am
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