Something to Wine about
10 October 2025 / Story Ray Cosier, Photos Wendy Mulholland
Day 1 Friday - We started our three day trip meeting at Mcdonald's Huntlee with four cars with a little time to sparebefore heading out, We all had coffee and brekkie in McDonald's. After a quick briefing, Marlene give us all a survivor pack filled with Cookies & Snakes
,it was a beautiful day for travelling with sunshine all the way, till our first rest stop at Jerry's Plains Camping Ground , our second stop was at our favourite bakery in Merriwa for lunch,it was quite crowded being the School Holidays as they were all following us to Mudgee.
All the ladies then decided to drive our next leg via Golden Hwy & Castlereagh Hwy to Gulgong. The scenery was spectacular, the countryside was green and the Blue Mountains were at their best, Wendy's photos really showed off the scenery, on the way we had another quick comfort spot at Cassillis Park Rest Area
Upon arrival at Gugong we headed to the Prince of Wales Hotel for a much needed beverage for the ladies, before continuing onto the Soldiers Motel in Mudgee. Once we were settled and arrested around 5 we had happy hour by the pool with nibbles and drinks
At around 6:30, we walked across the road to the Paragon Hotel for dinner, and boy, was it pumping! The atmospherewas great with live music, and the food was absolutely delicious. Brian and Kerry did successfully get the drinks but did pushed-in without realising it, the young folk did take pity on the old fella's HA HA ! . Such a great way to start the weekend, and best of all, it was only a short stagger back to our Motel.
Day 2 Saturday - Saturday morning, we all walked into town where we found a great cafe, The Butcher's Cafe, servinga really yummy breakfast, 4 members of the group had Breaky Rolls and loved them which they rated in the Top 10! they'd eaten. After a brief chat, we headed off to Pieter van Gent for some Wine & Port tasting & a purchase of two or three , with some great photos taken in the Cellar on what looked like some old Church seating . We did think the wines were a bit young, what would we really know! !!.Then we had a quick stop at II Petersons Winery II which was more to our liking. Luckilywe had Kerry with us, to use the room in his boot. We then headed out to Burnbrae Winery for lunch where we shared 3 different pizzas and antipasto platters and, of course, some more wine tasting. After lunch, we all headed back to the motel for a much needed kip.
At around 4.15 we had a short walk to the ' Flavors of Mudgee ' Wine & Food Festival where
we picked up our tasting packages . The weather and the atmosphere was great with lots of delicious food and wine to try from all the local and surrounding producers, there was live music and everyone was beautifully dressed enjoying themselves . By 7:30, we headed back to the Paragon Hotel for dinner, which didn't disappoint again. We stayed on for a short while for a couple of beverages, coffee, and a chat to finish off a great night.
Day 3 Sunday - In the morning we all loaded up our cars headed down to our now favourite Cafe the Butchers for another yummy breakfast, those Brekkie Rolls where to die for! and the coffee was good too. After breakfast we fueled up and hit the Honey Haven for a quick shop as Brian Mulholland had run out of Cinnamon Honey and we needed to load up more produce in Kerry's car
It was another beautiful sunny day for travelling, So we headed off towards Merriwa, and had lunch at, (you guessed it!),the Merriwa bakery.
The highlight of the Merriwa stop was as we were leaving, sitting in the shade was a family with a very young baby which we'd seen on the way to Mudgee on the very first day sitting in exactly the same spot, so the ladies had a quick chat with them.
After lunch we all said our goodbyes and headed home, it was quite hot by now, so some decided to head off with the roof up and Cranked up the AC !
