Hungerford Hill — Attraction in Pokolbin

If you want to experience a fantastic tasting experience that isn't just the standard cellar door tasting list, one after another, you MUST visit here!

We came for a tasting this Australia day long weekend, and Nick gave us another amazing experience (our second with him), and he assured us that since the last time we came (mid 2023?) that more of his team were able to offer this experience,

Instead of starting with sparkling and working down a list and being told what to expect, Nick put his mad scientist cap on, and asked us 20 random questions like "Do you like milk or dark chocolate?" "Do you want plain water, or water with a slice of lemon or slice of grapefruit?" "Do you like savory or sweet?" "What wine do you like to drink?",

From this he assembled 4 brackets of 3 wines to compare, so 12 wines all up, the brackets were sparkling, rose, sweet whites, and lively reds. The best part was the tasting back and forth within the bracket, to see the difference between more oak / less oak, more sweet / less sweet, younger / older, etc. And with ~40 wines made each year by their 3 brands, there was loads to choose from to get wines that suit exactly what you wanted.

So make sure you visit next time you're in the Hunter, leave at least 1.5 hours for the tasting and a cheese board and relax!

Was amazing, thanks...

While food & wine pairings are entirely personal, I can objectively say that the portion sizes here are shockingly small. Especially for a $60 tasting. There was barely enough to contemplate if the food was actually compatible with the glass it had been paired with. We found better value and better quality tastings for $15 (without food) at most other reputable venues in The Hunter.

Everyone in our group found the pairings here to be a little chaotic, sometimes even completely unsuitable, except for the sausage roll & Shiraz combo. And once inside the cellar door we were disappointed by how flat the decor felt, in contrast to the striking architecture of the building’s exterior.

We chose Hungerford’s $60 “Epic” tasting over Brokenwood’s $75 “Match Experience” because Hungerford appeared online to be better value than Brokenwood. This was not the case. Each tiny dish was essentially just a little re-heat bite. So unfortunately we didn’t think there was anything “Epic” about...

This is long overdue and it has been bugging us that we have not reviewed the venue. We went to Hungerford Hills on NYE 2023 for a wine tasting and had the most fantastic experience. We were greeted by the charismatic Chris and still talk about his knowledge for wines til this day! He asked a lot of questions about what we liked and was able to introduce wines that we were initially apprehensive to try based off other wine tastings and were pleasantly surprised. Each and every white wine we tasted was fantastic! We actually had a wine tasting else where, so we only managed to do the whites however we went back and finished the reds after going to the other winery!!! Chris greeted us and we got to try red wine - The reds were even better!! Thank you Chris for your knowledge and making the entire wine tasting so much fun and enjoyable. We can’t wait to return to Hungerford Hill when we are back...