There is a glass of semillon in front of me. I pick it up and swirl it in what I hope is an expert manner. I have never really understood the purpose of the motion, but it seems I’m about to find out.
“Swirling helps open up the wine and release the aromas,” says the bubbly and bright young woman standing beside our table. “And see those streaks running down the side of the glass? They’re the legs. They can give you an idea of the alcohol and body of the wine, but they don’t tell you if it’s a good wine.”
One mystery solved. The swirling, it turns out, is not just something wine drinkers do to look as though they know what they are doing.
I’m set to learn plenty more during our ‘Explorer’ wine tasting. Like the importance of the wine glass itself. I’ve always been what my friends call a ‘glass snob’, and I’m not afraid to admit it. My palate may be slightly unrefined, but I know that wine tastes better out of a quality glass.
It turns out my fussiness has some scientific backing. The shape of a glass affects how aromas ‘collect’ and reach the nose, which changes how we perceive the wine. Vindication at last.
Our tasting includes five white semillons and six shirazes. And while the smooth wines are impressive, the valley outside is doing a fairly good job of competing for my attention. From our high bar table, birds are pretty much all we can hear, except for the occasional car making its way along the country road. I glance beyond my glass and through the windows towards the green folds of the Hunter Valley.
At Thomas Wines in Pokolbin, the approach to wine is serious, but the atmosphere is anything but stuffy. Founder and winemaker Andrew Thomas has built his reputation largely around two varieties synonymous with the Hunter – semillon and shiraz – producing boutique, single-vineyard wines since 1997. Thomas Wines was named the 2026 Hunter Valley Cellar Door of the Year.
It is a fitting place to begin a few days exploring one of Australia’s best-known wine regions.
The Hunter is home to more than 150 wineries, which means even the most enthusiastic wine drinker is going to have to accept defeat at some point.
Rather than trying to tackle the region as one enormous trail, visitors can follow routes through seven subregions, from Pokolbin and Lovedale to Broke Fordwich, Mount View and Wollombi. Around Hermitage, where Thomas Wines is, there is even a 10-kilometre cycleway with more than a dozen cellar doors dotted along the route – although common sense suggests some restraint may be required if you plan to remain upright on two wheels.
There are the big names, of course, but also cellar doors tucked down country lanes and restaurants nestled among the vines. It is in one of the quieter pockets where we end our first day at the Hunter, settling into Mount View for the weekend ahead.
As the sun begins to set behind the majestic Broken Back Range, I drink in the view – a phrase that feels appropriate given the location. The sun, now a deep orange ball, casts a glow onto the paddock dotted with wild lemon trees that stretches before me. I could get used to this slower-paced way of life.
Admittedly, there is a glass of wine in my hand and nowhere I need to be, so perhaps this is not the moment to make any major life decisions.
That evening, around a crackling fire, I chat with the gently spoken Christelle Chardin, who owns Cedars Mount View with husband Gilbert. Their story begins a long way from here, in the Basque Country of France. The couple arrived in Australia as backpackers in 2011. Sometime during that adventure, they came up with the idea of one day creating their own eco-lodge.
Sydney became home, and by 2019, they were citizens, had a baby on the way and decided city life was no longer for them. They began searching for somewhere to turn their idea into reality. They found it at Mount View.
More than three years of drought had left the property parched and, as Christelle and Gilbert prepared to move, the devastating 2019-20 bushfires swept through the region. They watched and waited as the fires edged closer, eventually stopping only kilometres away. They moved to Cedars in January 2020. Then COVID arrived. Needless to say, it wasn’t the introduction to regional tourism they imagined. Since then, Cedars has undergone a reinvention.
Today, five villas are scattered throughout the 94-acre property. There are plenty of thoughtful details. Villa Stella has a two-metre skylight above the bed for stargazing, while The Vue has a heated plunge pool, sauna and spa overlooking the countryside.
The transformation has attracted national attention. Cedars won bronze in the Self-Contained Accommodation category at the 2023 NSW Tourism Awards before taking gold the following year.
Yet for all the beautiful interiors and luxury touches, its greatest asset might simply be its location. Pokolbin’s collection of wineries and restaurants is within easy reach, as is Cessnock, but Mount View feels removed from the main circuit. The roads are narrow, vineyards climb slopes and thick bush replaces some of the Hunter’s traditional broad vineyard country.
The following morning, we take one of those roads towards Wollombi. We don’t get particularly far before an unplanned – and slightly unusual – stop. Wollombi Cemetery sits on the outskirts of the village, its old headstones scattered across the hillside. We pull over for what is intended to be a quick look. It isn’t.
The cemetery contains memorials dating from 1834. Among those buried are early settlers, assigned servants, Irish political prisoners and soldiers who fought against Napoleon. It is a quiet and unexpectedly moving introduction to Wollombi itself.
The village was established as an administrative centre in the 1830s, at a junction of the Great North Road – the extraordinary 240-kilometre route built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 to link Sydney with Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Remnants of the original road remain today.
In town, sandstone churches, old timber buildings and weathered shopfronts make Wollombi feel a long way from the polished tasting rooms of Pokolbin.
And perhaps that is the point. The Hunter may have built its reputation on what is poured into the glass, but turn off the obvious route and there is plenty to discover between tastings.
Local tip: Five minutes from Cedars, you will find the impressive Bistro Molines. Set among the vineyards, it pairs French-inspired food with sweeping vistas. The restaurant has earned a coveted chef’s hat every year since 2010, including one hat this year. Reservations are essential.