If you love to visit small wineries this is the tour for you. This is not a Big Box tour, which is why I picked it. These small wineries love what they do and it shows by the way they interact with you. This makes wine tasting enjoyable. If you are looking for mature meaty wines this is not the area for you. Most are very young and light. Which may be different than what you are used to. It was for me. Do not expect much for the lunch. It says "gourmet", not so much. It was fine, and it did its duty, but gourmet it was not. Better than a plain sandwich for sure. Over all I really enjoyed my first trip to the Hunter Valley. I look forward in going back to try other wine regions in the country.

It is a perfect activity for a big fan of wines and cheese products as you are able to be exposed to a range of different products in which Hunter Valley is specialised. Yet, it might be slightly disappointing for those looking for more special experience because the tour does not feature too much of activities to do owing to the time constraints. In fact, we are only allowed to stay in the vicinity for around 3-4 hours with most of the time spent on commuting instead. Hope to explore the place more and it is suggested to include the visit to the factories there to learn about the manufacturing process which should be more fun. For one more thing, if you have a tight budget, you can consider going for the lunch at the cafe rather than gourmet lunch. The food in the former is also good but save you a lot more. All in all I would recommend this tour to others =)))

The best part of the tour was our lovely bus driver Jim. He supplied us with bits of meaningful information the entire day in a friendly and witty manner. The drive to the Hunter Valley was beautiful and we had an appropriate breakfast stop along the way. We enjoyed the wine tasting, but would suggest visiting 1 or 2 extra vineyards to experience a bit more variety. We expected more variety from the cheese tasting, so this was a bit disappointing. The chocolate tasting was very welcoming after the delicious lunch at the Cellar Restaurant. The boutique wine served at this restaurant was amazing and we would suggest that a lunch stop at this restaurant is included for everyone and not just optional. Overall it was a lovely day spent outside of Sydney and a great pleasure to taste the Hunter Valley wines.