Reverting to type...cheese, wine and more wine. And more cheese.

Since we spend so much time actually consuming Australian wines we thought it only right to visit the place where some of them are born.

We spent a very interesting and very shall we say 'nourishing' day visiting Tyrrells, Pepper Tree, Hungerford Hill, Small Wine Makers Centre, Australian Foodstore, Blue Tongue Brewery, McGuigan, Roche, Hunter Cheese Factory and the wonderfully named the Smelly Cheese shop - click Here for a few choice pics . We also managed 2 wine tours & a talk on making cheese. The Pepper Tree tour was a private affair with the Manager and included a VIP tasting of all their top wines. OMG, I was in heaven.

I can't believe we managed all of that in one day, but we did start at 9am sharp when they opened and finished at 5pm when they closed. Talk about eeking it for every drop (if you'll excuse the pun). Well the tastings were free. Can you believe that? A basic tasting in London's Vinopolis is 16 quid! If I had known, we would have scheduled in a week.

Graeme, we tried a Gewurtzaminer in your honour. Still sweet I'm afraid. And managed to outwit the breathaliser tests in the tasting rooms, or it may have been me just thinking I was outwitting them when really I was behaving like the town drunk.

Alas, we have only 1 day to go before Kenny must be returned so we had to leave the beloved place of the free wine and lots of cheese (we actually managed 6 blocks on top of the tastings in the 24 hours that we were there - must be a new all time record).

Off to the Blue Mountains to walk it all off tomorrow. Me thinks we'll need more than a day of walking to burn it all off...