How to enjoy wine intelligently (but without being a total douchebag).

When our Editor-in-chief, Jamila, told me I was going to the Hunter Valley for a weekend of wine tasting, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

Then I found out I’d be having lunch and a chat with Neil McGuigan.

This is the guy who runs the winery responsible for the best white wine in the world (2005). That’s right. The best in the world. Not just Australia  – although they did win that too – but the world.

The. Entire. World.

Basically, if goon bags are the Crocs of the wine industry, the wine McGuigan’s produces is pretty much a pair of Louboutins.

Great. I figured I was going to spend the weekend being spoken down to by some wanker who liked throwing around words like “robust” and “tannins”.

Before heading to the Hunter, I knew two things about wine.

1. I liked it.

2. I really liked it.

Ok so I knew one thing, which I assumed meant I basically knew nothing.

I couldn’t have been more off the mark.

Wining and dining with Mr McGuigan was a genuinely lovely experience. Rather than intimidating me with pretentious, wine rhetoric, he shared his passion. Neil’s love of wine was infectious (admittedly I’d already caught that disease before turning up).

I expected to come away from my weekend to write an article about trying to remember which food was best suited to a Shiraz and what wine I should be able to taste “oak” in. But after walking through the wineries, speaking with the wine makers, meeting Neil, talking to his team at the Cellar Door and doing my fair share of glass swirling – I realised the wine business has a whole lot more heart and humility than we give it credit for. At the end of the day, the people bottling your favourite drop have a lot more in common with the everyday farmer  – what they want is to produce a great product.

Here are a few key tips I picked up from my weekend away.

You cannot be wrong.

It’s your palate, so nobody can tell you which wine you should be drinking, just go with what you prefer. Stick to what you like and ask for it. I know that I like medium-full bodied reds with lots of oak, so that’s what I ask for.

Read the label.

If you’re trying to gain an appreciation for wine or train your palate, the best thing you can do is read the label. Not only will it help you pick out flavour notes and appreciate the subtle differences in wines, it is also a great place to start in terms of buying a wine you know you’ll like. The label will normally give you a good indication of what the wine will be like, soft, fruity, etc. So pay attention to it.

Talk to the experts.

Whether you’re at the Cellar Door or at your local bottle shop, the people working there are trained to help you. Make them your best friend. It’s their job to help you find a drop you’ll enjoy. Don’t be intimidated, just tell them what you like and they should handle the rest. At McGuigan’s Cellar Door, a lovely lady called Margot really took care of us, taking us through wines based on what we liked and pushing our palates to try new things. I ended up buying two bottles of white when I normally drink red because Margot was so good at identifying what I liked. I wanted to put her in my bag and take her home.

Ignore the wine/food matching rules.

If you don’t like red wine but drink it because you think it goes with steak, stop that right now. There’s

so much variety in wine that you can find a thousand wines that will taste good with what you’re eating. Neil says if you like the wine and you like the food – that’s all the match you need.

Buy the $10 bottle of wine.

If you like a $10 bottle of wine, lucky you! Buy it and be proud of it, there’s nothing wrong with embracing what you like and it doesn’t mean you have cheap taste. When I was in the Hunter, I bought a bottle of McGuigan’s Black Label red that cost $12. We enjoyed it so much, we drank the entire bottle that night in the hotel and had to go back the next day and buy a case. Again, no one can tell you what you like – so just drink what you enjoy.

Visit the Hunter!

I had such a great time away, I don’t think it will be my last visit to the Hunter Valley. If you live in Sydney, it’s a short, easy drive – you get in the car and next thing you know you are drinking wine and eating cheese, looking out over amazing stretches of green. Obviously, I would recommend McGuigan’s Cellar Door – they see 120,000 people come through every year and there is a reason! The cheese shop next door is also delicious. Tempus Two is just across the road, and a little bit more modern, but still producing awesome wine. It’s surrounded by great places to eat and drink, with a stellar view. Check it out!

 Freya spent the weekend in the Hunter Valley courtesy of McGuigans and Tempus Two wines.