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How awesome is this view!!!!! I don’t think this photo does it justice but believe me, I think the best view in the Hunter Valley is definitely from Audrey Wilkenson. You can also participate in a shirazoff to see if you can taste the difference between a $20 and $35 shiraz. I have only recently started drinking red’s so am still learning. The lovely Irishman at the cellar door was very nice and took the time to explain to us the difference between the 2 Shiraz’s. I thought they were both lovely but I couldn’t taste the $15 difference, so we just bought the cheaper one.

The same day we had lunch at Leaves and Fishes we had dinner at Margan, Broke. Big mistake. We were so full and didn’t appreciate the dinner as much as we would have if we hadn’t been out for an amazing lunch. I didn’t take my DSLR and the room was really smoky from the open fireplace so the photos aren’t the best quality but 2 of the dishes I had at Margan are worth sharing here.

The first is the squid with prawns and white anchovies. Everything was so fresh and delicately cooked. It was really nice.

The dessert was a Chocolate marquise with caramel and walnuts. Absolutely sensational! Loved it! Margan is about a 20 minute drive from Pokolbin. We saw 2 kangaroos on the way. Margan have their own veggie patch which they use for the restaurant. I think next time it would be better to go here during the day to appreciate their connection with the land more.

After a full day winery tour on Saturday we weren’t very hungry but decided to eat at The Mill, which was part of Tuscany Wine Estate, where we stayed. The restaurant looked so different to how it was set up for breakfast and immediately wowed me. Each table had a beautiful red flower on it and the warmth from the fireplace made it very romantic. We were very lucky to be seated right in front of the fireplace and it wasn’t smoky at all. The quirky lone diner sitting next to us gave us a whole description of how the dimensions of a fireplace determine if it will suck the smoke up or make the room smoky and how there aren’t many wood fireplaces around anymore. He was quite vocal about the ratios of this fireplace and talked about it for a good 5 minutes. The Snapper at The Mill was divine. A nice sized portion served on a bed of potatoes, rocket and shaved parmesan.

Since we were being ziggy piggies the last few days we shared dessert, sticky date pudding. It was delish!

On Sunday we hired bikes and did a massive 35km loop around Pokolbin. I had a very sore bum at the end. My favourite part is Debeyers road which is a long downhill with hardly any cars riding next to vineyards. Ahhhhh the serenity.

We stopped for breakfast at Cafe Enzo which had a beautiful fountain in a sunny courtyard.

After eating so many desserts I thought I better get a healthy breakfast so I had the Byron Bay muesli served with rockmelon, strawberries and yoghurt ($15). Despite being quite expensive it was very nice and the first time I’d eaten muesli this way.

After our monster bike ride, oh yeah this is the longest bike ride I’ve ever done, we were starvin marvin. We were going to have lunch at Firestick cafe but it was closed. Not sure why. So we made a last minute decision to go to Elizabeth’s at McWilliams Mount Pleasant. I had the chicken and it was nice. The wine was better though. We had a glass of Maurice O’Shea ($15), a spicy fruit forward Shiraz (I read that description in Delicious mag) and it was worth every cent. We bought a few bottles of this delightful wine too. Looking forward to having that soon.

1. Top 5 from the good food and wine show, Sydney.
2. Gourmet Garden Cooking Lesson @ The Sydney good food and wine show 2010
3. Leaves and Fishes, Lovedale