{"id":163703,"date":"2017-11-17T11:20:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T00:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.australiantraveller.com\/?p=163703"},"modified":"2021-11-30T10:36:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T23:36:29","slug":"the-avoid-pokolbin-hunter-valley-roadtrip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.australiantraveller.com\/nsw\/hunter\/hunter-valley\/the-avoid-pokolbin-hunter-valley-roadtrip\/","title":{"rendered":"The perfect (and undiscovered) Hunter Valley road trip route"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s one of the country\u2019s most visited wine regions, but delightful nooks await those prepared to avoid the Hunter Valley\u2019s more beaten tracks.<\/h5>\n

Earlier this year, when a little \u201980s pop-rock group known as Roxette headlined at A Day On The Green in NSW\u2019s Hunter Valley, we were quick to buy tickets.<\/p>\n\n

But we weren\u2019t so quick on the accommodation front.\u00a0It turned out everything in the wine region\u2019s central hub of Pokolbin had been booked up quicker than you can say \u2018Hello, you fool\u2019 (you should have booked sooner).<\/p>\n\n

At the time, we had winced at the thought of staying in the outskirts: we wanted a convenient and satisfying weekend and, as frequent visitors, knew Pokolbin could offer that. After all, it boasts the Hunter\u2019s largest concentration of wineries and cellar doors, restaurants and places to rest your head.<\/p>\n\n

But as we would soon discover, beyond this beaten track the Hunter Valley is hiding some real gems \u2013 many of which are accidentally stumbled across by driving too far, taking a wrong turn, or when a Swedish pop duo causes a bed shortage.<\/p>\n

\"Whispering

Arriving at Whispering Brook vineyard (photo: Elise Hassey)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hit the road<\/h2>\n

And so my love affair with the small sub-regions of Broke and Wollombi began, just 15 and 30 minutes from Pokolbin respectively. To get here you can bypass the usual gateways of Cessnock and Pokolbin altogether and arrive via Tourist Drive 33 by taking the Peats Ridge exit off the M1.<\/p>\n\n

We insist you do: this slower-paced route follows a rather windy road, originally built by convicts, and passes some incredibly pretty farmland, charming country houses and barns, cattle and sheep grazing roadside, farm-gate stalls touting local produce and clusters of weird and wonderful letterboxes sitting at the top of long country roads.<\/p>\n\n

What greets you at the end of this drive is a host of family owned and run businesses where the people behind the food and wine tasting experiences are generally the ones who are out on the land picking the grapes and olives, making the wines and oils, and labelling the bottles.<\/p>\n\n

More than just producers, they\u2019re artisans \u2013 a good number of whom take a sustainable and organic focus to their craft.<\/p>\n\n

Compared with Pokolbin, where tour buses ship visitors in and out in droves, these underrated sub-regions of the Hunter Valley are quiet and peaceful.<\/p>\n\n

During our visit we never once share the tasting table with other visitors, allowing us to have one-on-one conversations with the locals who are happy to share tips on where you should head to next.<\/p>\n\n

Julie MacDonald, cellar door manager at Noyce Brothers Wine<\/a>\u00a0in Wollombi tells us that they don\u2019t see as many visitors as they\u2019d like. \u201cWe have history, great wineries, divine accommodation\u2026 and Kellie across the road does beautiful stuff,\u201d she says nodding to the little paper bag I\u2019m holding. But more on that later.<\/p>\n\n

Noyce Brothers is a boutique wine producer whose cellar door is housed in a beautiful 19th-century sandstone building, also home to Grays Inn, in the heart of the historical village.<\/p>\n\n

The vineyard is located just a few clicks up the road and is owned by Phillip Noyce (director of Australian film Rabbit Proof Fence and TV series Revenge) and his two brothers Michael and Peter. Julie urges us to taste the verdelho, which is soft, smooth and easy-to-drink, and we immediately commit to purchasing a bottle.<\/p>\n\n

The aforementioned paper bag I\u2019m holding contains a tiny glass jar encasing a pair of earrings made out of Japanese washi paper \u2013 I had bought them from Twine<\/a>, a gorgeous home store that stocks unique, quality products from all over the world, as long as they\u2019re created sustainably or follow Fairtrade practices.<\/p>\n\n

Owner Kellie Jones had told me that the soft, flat-woven Turkish bath towel I was admiring was made in central Turkey with 100 per cent cotton and the hemp table runner was hand-woven by artisans in India. You won\u2019t leave empty-handed.<\/p>\n\n

The store is housed in the former court of Petty Sessions, one of the village\u2019s many heritage-listed Colonial buildings, built around 1840 and restored in the 1970s. Across the road, the General Store is resplendent in its original 1860s building, and stocks a selection of locally made honeys, jams, oils and relishes, an ideal spot to stock up if you\u2019re staying in self-contained accommodation.<\/p>\n\n

Despite being small, there\u2019s a number of dining options in the village: Caf\u00e9 Wollombi has a lovely wraparound verandah that is the perfect spot to perch when bathed in sunshine (the coffee is great, too!); Italian-style eatery Panino<\/a>\u00a0is located next to Noyce Brothers Wine \u2013 dine out back and play a game of chess on the giant chessboard; and the Wollombi Tavern\u00a0is a good ol\u2019 fashioned establishment where you can enjoy some pub grub and a glass of the infamous Dr Jurd\u2019s Jungle Juice, created by legendary local Mel Jurd in the late \u201950s and sold here ever since.<\/p>\n

\"cellar

The cellar door at Krinklewood (photo: Elise Hassey).<\/p><\/div>\n

Handcrafted wines<\/h2>\n

Indeed, if an au naturel drop is more your style, hit the road and head up to Broke, stopping in at Krinklewood Biodynamic Vineyard<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 about 20 minutes north of Wollombi. Overlooking vineyards and olive groves, its cellar door is set among provincial-style gardens, home to a resident peacock and chickens strutting about.<\/p>\n\n

The vineyard and farm is managed in a biodynamic, organic and sustainable way, giving the wines an individual flavour and superior quality. The Francesca Ros\u00e9 is a personal favourite, but the chardonnay and semillon have impressed the tastebuds of experts, winning several awards over the years.<\/p>\n\n

Also placing a strong emphasis on sustainability is Margan<\/a> winery and restaurant; its one-acre kitchen garden and orchard produces up to 90 per cent of the fruit and veges on the award-winning menu.<\/p>\n\n

But it doesn\u2019t stop there: they raise free-range chicken and Black Suffolk lambs, have beehives for fresh, unfiltered honey and an olive grove; anything they don\u2019t produce on-site, they source locally, as do most restaurants and cafes in the area.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, the wine is also produced on-site and we head into the exquisite cellar door for a tasting. After hearing this is our first time exploring Broke, the gentleman behind the tasting table suggests we stop in at Whispering Brook<\/a>: \u201cThey\u2019re doing a good thing down there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Taking his advice, we follow an unassuming laneway to the vineyard (whispering-brook.com). It was rated a five-star winery by James Halliday earlier this year with its 2011 shiraz and 2013 semillon both scoring an impressive 95\/100, but it\u2019s the chardonnay I\u2019m most taken by, it\u2019s making a comeback thanks to small wineries like Whispering Brook creating a more elegant drop with less oak. And, for the record, it\u2019s one of the most delicious I\u2019ve tried.<\/p>\n\n

Cellar door manager Ron Corino tells us why the boutique winery trumps the bigger wineries that mass-produce. \u201cWe prune the vines by hand, cutting back bunches of grapes so the vine puts all its energy into the remaining fruit, meaning the quality and flavour of the fruit is better. Our aim is quality, not quantity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

But in my case, it\u2019s all about quantity as I leave with several bottles of vino.<\/p>\n

\"Wollombi\u2019s

Wollombi\u2019s heritage-listed General Store (photo: Elise Hassey)<\/p><\/div>\n

Off the beaten track<\/h2>\n

Our final stop for the day is Broke\u2019s Promise\u00a0where owner Graeme McDougall asks a hard-hitting question: \u201cWhere do you buy your olives from?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Sheepishly, I admit to shopping at Coles and Woolies. He offers up a bowl of green Spanish Manzanilla table olives, which are decidedly less salty than the ones I\u2019m used to. \u201cThe supermarkets import their olives from Chile and Argentina,\u201d he says, \u201cand they love their salt over there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

We also try the tapenades and the flavour-infused oils and balsamic vinegar. \u201cGet creative!\u201d Graeme urges. \u201cDrizzle the lemon olive oil over salmon and bake in the oven; use the olive and chilli tapenade in your pastas or pizzas; make garlic bread with the garlic oil!\u201d as he kisses his fingertips and flicks them in the air.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s this kind of passion that makes tripping around cellar doors a truly worthwhile pursuit. As I leave with a couple more bottles underarm, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling from supporting the small guys\u2026 Or is that the wine?<\/p>\n\n

Later that evening, as we settle in front of the fire in our secluded country house \u2013 somewhere in the backroads of the Hunter Valley, away from the crowds \u2013 with a glass of local wine, a plate of local olives and some fresh sourdough and balsamic vinegar, I decide this is now my Plan A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one of the country\u2019s most visited wine regions, but delightful nooks await those prepared to avoid the Hunter Valley\u2019s more beaten tracks. Earlier this year, when a little \u201980s pop-rock group known as Roxette headlined at A Day On The Green in NSW\u2019s Hunter Valley, we were quick to buy tickets. But we weren\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"article.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1023],"tags":[4542,1513,7161,4702,4714,4231,5715,5515],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Perfect Undiscovered Route to Road Trip the Hunter Valley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's most visited wine regions, but delightful nooks - Broke and Wollombi - await those prepared to get off the beaten path\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.australiantraveller.com\/nsw\/hunter\/hunter-valley\/the-avoid-pokolbin-hunter-valley-roadtrip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Perfect Undiscovered Route to Road Trip the Hunter Valley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's most visited wine regions, but delightful nooks - Broke and Wollombi - await those prepared to get off the beaten path\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.australiantraveller.com\/nsw\/hunter\/hunter-valley\/the-avoid-pokolbin-hunter-valley-roadtrip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Australian Traveller\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AustTraveller\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-17T00:20:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-29T23:36:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/GettyImages-182489515.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"584\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AustTraveller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AustTraveller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Perfect Undiscovered Route to Road Trip the Hunter Valley","description":"The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's most visited wine regions, but delightful nooks - 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