Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Wine? Wi-not (see what I did there...)

So I have decided to dust off the old blog and give her a second chance at life. Why have I just made my blog female? I'm sure it could work as a male too? Actually, maybe not. Female it is. So what has been going on? You know...a bit of this, a bit of that, some travelling and a whole lot of shopping (I'm doing my bit for the economy). But it isn't all splashing cash and being frivolous. Times are tight and it's important to be able to find bargains whilst still spoiling ourselves. The bargains are there to be had if you know where to look. And here is my example: To celebrate our 4 year anniversary, Boyfriend and I wanted to get away for a weekend for some "quality time". Not exactly sure what constitutes quality time, but any excuse to get out of Sydney is fine by me.


So I logged on to www.lastminute.com.au, picked my destination of choice (the Hunter Valley) and landed the most amazing accomodation for half the regular price. We were fortunate enough to snag a room at The Vintage. We had a great apartment with full bathroom (huge bath), 2 TVs, full kitchen, BBQ and great view. My only complaint? Dodgy pillows (perhaps if I had taken my own; see previous post). But that can totally be overlooked. Apart from an excellent apartment, we did the usual round of wineries and a couple of decent meals. In bullet points for ease of consumption...


Excellent: Margan Restaurant in Broke. Recommend for lunch. Simply amazing food. I cannot rave enough about their lunchtime tasting plates. We shared gnocchi and some beautiful fish as well as salad and their own wine. Perfect.


Also excellent: Scarborough Winery (see picture). My absolute favourite winery in the Hunter. They do a glorious tasting where you sit at one of their tables overlooking the valley (kangaroos optional) and they set your placemat with the 9 different wines they are sampling that day. You go through each one by one and enjoy the complimentary cheese and crackers. I am utterly in love with their Botrytis Semillon.


Not so excellent: Mojo's on Wilderness. A terribly overrated and overpriced restaurant. The food was good but way too expensive for what it was, and the wine was almost 3 times the cellar door price for a bottle - there's markup and there is highway robbery.


All in all an amazing weekend away. Next time you're going to the Hunter, pop into Scarborough and grab me a bottle of Botrytis please. Thanks.


Price: from $291 for The Vintage

From: lastminute.com.au

Why you need it: to get out of Sydney for the weekend, enjoy some wine and relaaaaax

1 comment:

eskimojo said...

Oh nice -we're heading to the Hunter next month so I'll be looking into your recommendations for sure.

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