Last Friday I took a much needed day off and decided to visit a town called Mudgee, about an hour's drive east of Dubbo. Mudgee is a small town known for its vineyards, cafes and more recently a small distillery. It is about 5 hours drive northwest of Sydney, which makes it a popular weekend destination with some of the city dwellers.
I drove through a few small 'blink and you'll miss them' towns on my way there. Everywhere the scenery was very rural NSW. Just outside a town called Ballimore I came across a small herd of cattle huddling under a tree for some shade. It was only 8 in the morning and already the sun was scorching...
Just beyond the cattle was a natural soda water spring...
I stopped to take a photo and a small video of the horrid sulphur-crested cockatoos, which swarm through the sky with shrieks that curdle your blood....
By 9am I had reached the sleepy town of Mudgee, which was quite a bit smaller than Dubbo. Here is a picture of the main street...
After a quick bite of breakfast at a local cafe and a walk around the town centre I headed off to the first of several vineyards, di Lusso, where I had an early lunch. I had a lovely antipasto pizza followed by a creamy chicken and tarragon pot pie, served with a glass of very nice white made from the Picolit grape. The Picolit is an extremely rare varietal from Colli Orientali in Friuli (north east Italy). There are said to be less than 100 producers of this wine varietal in the world. This is because the grape suffers from a condition known as 'floral abortion', which means that it is prone to loosing all its flowers in Spring and thus does not produce any grapes. This makes it an incredibly nonviable grape in a commercial world, especially when growers can go a couple of years at a time before getting a harvest. But, I can tell you that if you like a sweeter wine there is none more pleasant than this little drop.
Above and Below: The setting at di Lusso, where they serve lunch alfresco overlooking the pond. They also grow olives and figs.
Below: My pizza being cooked in a wood-fired oven on the terrace.
One of my next stops was a vineyard called Pieter van Gent. They had a very atmospheric cellar set up for visitors, and were very friendly, although none of their wines was to my taste.
Below: The unassuming exterior...
Which gives way to their dramatic cellar...
After a couple more wineries there was only time to squeeze one more in before dinner. I chose to do something different, I visited a distillery. The Baker Williams Distillery was set up two years ago and makes a variety of spirits and liqueurs. One of the owners, Nathan, gave us a guided tour and explained the distilling process to us. I learnt about 'heads' and 'tails' and triple distilling and temperature control and valves etc.
We got to try most of their spirits. I was especially interested in their whiskey, and the process of aging it. We got to try some of the 'new make' which is the new spirit that has been distilled from malted barley. It was clear and colourless, but already had a burgeoning taste of whiskey. It was quite odd sipping something that looked like vodka but tasted like scotch. We then got to try some that had been aged in American oak barrels for various times, so that we could appreciate the aging process. I must say that even though the process made much more sense to me, the demystification paradoxically made it more intriguing to me. Perhaps I will have a go at trying to make whiskey once we get our still up and running at WBP.
Above: The still head with 6 different valves and a distillate collection pipe.
Below: The still itself.
Below: The process being explained with wine and a bunsen burner.
I then had a lovely meal at The Wineglass bar and grill, at Cobb & Co Court in town before heading back late to Dubbo. So, that was my day.
Below: Sunset over the vineyard.
