Hanging Tree Wines - Hunter Valley — Restaurant in Pokolbin

This is my favourite hunter valley winery and the only one I’m a member at. I come to the hunter 1-2 times a year for many years now and hanging tree is always top on the list to visit. The venue is beautiful and the wine matches 🤤 it’s popular but still small enough to keep that family feel winery. Top tip, if you’re not a dog fan maybe don’t come here because it’s a dog friendly winery (the main reason I come, cmon) and they mean it. We went on the long weekend and so many groups brought their dogs and let them play with the resident dogs and it was just the best day ever. I got to Pat so many dogs 🥹 one time we went and someone bought their sausage dog and was annoyed the resident dogs kept coming up to him because he wasn’t good with other dogs. Sorry? The residents walk around free range so if your dog isn’t socialised why would you bring it here? Despite that Lauren the manager still offered to move bundy away (somehow) or offered them to move (as it was hot and fatboi wanted to be on the side with the pond). In saying that though the dogs don’t hang around the visitors they will come say hi then go off and do their own thing. if you’re not into the crowded weekends then I suggest you go on a weekday. It’s much more relaxed on weekdays. Also remember to book! Gone are the days you can just walk into a popular winery and expect to get a tasting then and there (thanks Covid). Everyone did it rough up here with the lockdowns and staff numbers at most places are allocated based on their bookings. It’s impossible to know how many walk ins you’re going to get anymore so pull ya heads in and book 👏🏼 a 👏🏼 damn 👏🏼 tasting 👏🏼. I haven’t even mentioned the wine yet but we are red wine drinkers and hanging tree reds are well priced with smooth red options, a sweet red and that earthy red 🤤 10 out of 10 would recommend (but only to people with a...

We've often bought wine from Hanging Tree but our recent wine tasting experience was extremely disappointing. When we arrived, we were greeted by the cellar door staff. She immediately pointed out my accent and greeted me with "welcome to Australia", assuming that I'm a tourist. I find this attitude extremely poor and offensive - I've lived in Australia for many years, I hold an Australian passport and I pay my taxes. I wish people would stop treating every person who has a little accent like a tourist! You can't do much about your accent but treating every Australian who was born overseas like an alien is just horrible and it really hurts! It made me feel very uncomfortable and I felt as if "I don't really belong here". I also felt that the lady was mostly engaging with the only "real" Australian person in our group, simply because he didn't have an accent.

Next, me and my friends were seated at a table outside. The same lady appeared with a wine list but instead of telling us a bit about the winery or the Hunter Valley, she pointed to the sky and educated us about "chem trails". Don't get me wrong, people should be allowed to believe in whatever they want but why do they need to share conspiracy theories with paying customers? It made us feel extremely uncomfortable and ruined our mood. Unfortunately, this was our last winery stop, so the whole Hunter Valley trip got a bitter aftertaste.

To be clear, the scenery is lovely and they have some nice wines but based on this experience I wouldn't go there again. It saddens me that staff isn't properly trained and treats people with accents in a very disrespectful way and spreads conspiracy theories. We had planned to do another wine tasting there but have booked now with a different...

My wife and I wanted to visit a winery outside the main drag for something different. We found Hanging Trees Winery and noticed the really great comments about the wines as well as Uncle Ken. Low and behold, Uncle Ken was there to greet us. We did have to wait 10 minutes while they had to clean the table from the previous people due to the whole COVID situation, which we understood and had no issues with. Uncle Ken was purely awesome. Made the conversation enjoyable and very easy to talk with. Explained clearly and simply about the different wines and was willing to take the time to see if we had any questions about the process of making wine etc.

On top of that, the wines and Moscat we tasted were the best we have had in the Hunter area and tasted just how he explained it. It was an awesome experience, the best so far. We bought a box of mixed wines and moscato and we will definitely be back to buy more.

Well done Uncle Ken! You are a top bloke and an absolute...