Hunter Valley Grapevine: Lovedale Long Lunch review

Friday, May 27, 2011

Lovedale Long Lunch review - part 1

We joined a group of Hunter locals on Sunday the 15^th May for our first taste of the Lovedale Long Lunch.

Mel's pristine LLL wine glass, at 10.30am

We were picked up nice and early by minibus and were into our first glass of wine just after 10:30 in the morning. As you can imagine some details later in the day are a bit harder to recollect.

Not really knowing what to expect when the bus pulled up at Allandale Winery, we were quickly introduced to how big a day this has become. It was only 10:30 in the morning and there must have been well over 500 people there, most of whom were partaking in the various wines and food on offer. We were later told that the crowds on the Saturday were at least double the size.

The best way to enjoy the day is to the purchase the “LLL” meal and glass package which consists of a meal ticket and dessert or cheese platter ticket which can be used at any of the 7 wineries taking part. You also get a “LLL” commemorative tasting glass which allows you to try as many different wines at each venue as you wish.

We had an initial plan of getting to all 7 wineries but it became pretty clear it was going to be too rushed to get in and out of each winery to make all 7 so between everyone on the bus we decided on 4 to visit throughout the day. Between tasting the various wines and buying a different bottle at each venue it seemed the best way to go.

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and over the next week or so we’ll give a short review of the 4 wineries we were able to get to on the day.