A Day on the Green

This weekend, Paul and I left the city for a little relaxation and fun in Sydney’s wine region, the Hunter Valley. It’s just a short two hour drive away and you’ve been transported to the country.

The Hunter Valley is beautiful terrain lined with farms and rolling hills dotted with vineyards. This time of year, everything is lush and green and the grapes are just about ready for picking. We love the Hunter and surely this will be a place we will miss dearly when we eventually move back to the US. Unlike Napa, California, which can be a bit pretentious and too good for its own doing, the Hunter offers a no-fuss, relaxed environment set amongst scenic landscapes. The wines are gorgeous with the region being predominantly known for its Semillon and Shiraz; the local cuisine is simple, fresh and homegrown; and overall, it’s just country chic.

The main reason we headed to the Hunter this weekend was to enjoy ourselves at a concert on Saturday night. For Christmas, we bought tickets for A Day on the Green, which is an outdoor concert series that travels to various wineries around Australia. It combines amazing homegrown musical talent with fine wine, food and a spectacular location. This weekend, Bimbadgen Estate was featuring the The John Butler Trio, an electric roots blue grass jam band that is one of our favourites- We absolutely love these guys. Not only are they quality musicians but they use their talents to bring awareness to social, political, cultural and environmental injustices.

For Paul and I, we identify with their music and their hopes for making a better world. You’ve got to love a down-to-earth band that actually cares about our planet and each other. We had the honour of seeing John Butler play Ocean, which has got to be one of the best instrumental guitar pieces ever. He plays a 12 string guitar which is incredibly difficult to do and this song is just gorgeous. The trio played several other crowd favourites and I can safely say the vineyard was definitely rocking that night!