Our blog

We receive a lot of phone calls and emails asking a lot of questions about our wine tours. What wineries do you go to? Where do you go for lunch? Do we do Cheese and chocolate? How much is a full day and a half day tour? etc etc The simple answer is we do what you want or we customise the tour to suit YOU and WE CHARGE EVERYBODY THE SAME!

Apples are not Apples when it comes to wine tours. If you are going to ring around and compare prices then you have to compare quality. We are featured in Australia's BEST wine tours", WHY? read the title! Because that is what we offer The Best Wine Tour Experience. We are not the cheapest, we are not the dearest we are just the BEST!  Do you buy the cheapest apples in the supermarket or buy the freshest? Well wine tours are the same. My Wife Gail and I are the only two Chauffeurs /guides that we use. This  ensures a consistant level of quality and experience, we are local, we have exceptional wine and area knowledge. I personally have visited over 100 cellar doors we keep up with new releases and what is available where and when and if we don't know something we will find out before days end. We can normally arrange private tastings at most wineries and can pull strings to get you into the top restaurants. WHY? you ask. Because when you are the best you have the best customers and when you have the best customers the best wineries and restaurants want to see YOU. If you are after an outstanding tour with professional personalised service then look at the stats not the price. Ring us today ,Have a chat and we can tell you why you don't need to ring anywhere else.

Some people have recently asked for a copy of their itinerary. We believe that on most ocassions we design our itineraries on the day, reason being that we can see what your palate is like and choose the wineries that we believe have the wine that you will enjoy. If you really need to know where you will be going it is not a problem for us to pre-book our itinerary but please keep in mind that though courtesy we need to stick to the booked itinerary. Some wineries may have refused bookings to people so that they could accommodate you and your group. We try to customise each tour to suit your tastes but if you really want to know your itinerary then please accept that we need to stick too what we have booked. Thanks for your understanding

We are pleased to re-introduce our half day wine tours and this time 7 days a week. After prolonged public pressure and a long hard think about how this might work for you the visitor we have come up with the following. To be fair to both the customer and me [the one who is supposed to make money out of this ha] We decided to trial the half day tours on a set time schedule. they are only available from local Wine Country accommodation and have set pick up and drop off times. The morning tour is 9-30 am till 1-00 pm and the afternoon tour is 1-30 pm till 5-00 pm. We recommend no lunch stops in the half day tours as this will only consume the majority of your tasting time waiting for your meal. We naturally still offer the full day tours and depending on availability offer an hourly hire along with our airport transfers. So if you want a true Aussie experience please give us a call or drop us an email and we can discuss your options.

With the arrival of our new 9 seat VW Caravelle we are now able to accommodate groups of up to 8 people! We still only offer private chauffeur driven boutique tours but now we have the bigger capacity to carry more of your friends. We can still offer the luxury of our Chauffeur Driven Hire Cars but just in case you have a couple of extras that wont fit into the sedan we can now help.

So if you are coming to the Hunter Valley and want a Private Tour around the Vineyards but want the flexibility of choosing your own itinerary then give us a call or drop us an email /comment and we can discuss your needs.

STOP PRESS We have just ordered our new 8 passenger luxury vehicle so we can now offer private tours for up to 4 people in our luxury Holden Statesman or groups up to 8 in our new Volkswagen Caravelle

With our new private format we can now only cater for groups of up to 8 people. The new format allows for two options when it comes to doing a tour with us and the choice is yours.

We can fully customise the tour on your behalf including lunch cheese and chocolate tastings if required. We are currently negoitiating with several fine dining establishments for a special deal that will allow us to offer you a fixed price fully inclusive tour.

This will include a 2 course meal chosen by you off the normal menu and private tastings at 5-8 wineries. More details to follow!

The other option will allow you to choose your own wineries,restaurant and other attractions on the day or beforehand which ever you choose. Naturally the more notice we have the more we can do to ensure that you get the best possible treatment and service from your chosen destinations.

We will continue to offer Airport Transfers as well as hotel transfers to and from both Sydney and Newcastle.

As soon as I get the details from the restaurants I will post the details but if you need more information just give us a call!

With the recent sale of our bus fleet which was ran under the name of Aussie Wine Tours we have incorporated the two businesses into one. We will continue to offer the same services but only in the form of our private tours for up to 4 guests per vehicle. Tours are customised and no two tours are the same, Lunch can be purchased on the day or we can include it into a complete package. You still have the choice to choose your own itinerary our we can customise it for you, the choice is yours.

So if it is a private exclusive tour of the Hunter Valley wine area you desire give us a call or drop us an email and we can explain all the details and a variety of options.

Another festive season over and the 2010 vintage is starting to be harvested. The weather has been a little patchy with reasonable rainfall and the grape growers have been working overtime to keep the grapes free of disease.

The Hire Cars have been well received and Aussie Wine Tours are now exclusively in the private, boutique market of Hunter Valley Wine Tours. We have sold our buses and are now combining all our resources and experience into these tours.

We have found that you our regular customers wanted more choices and variety not to mention the exclusive privacy of your own vehicle, the choice of available wineries and restaurants have grown enormously with the reduction in passenger numbers in fact we can now go anywhere!

So if you think you have seen it all then you better book a tour with us and we will find you something new. Wine Dine and Enjoy!

During July when the temperature drops and you have to make that lifestyle decision of whether you should go to the Hunter Valley and taste some outstanding wines or go to the snow and party hard we find we have a little spare time to research our product.

This year we ventured south past the snow and onto the famous Barossa and Clare Valleys to see if there was any possible way we could improve our service.

We spent 5 glorious days in South Australia tasting the different varieties and styles that the regions are famous for. We went on private wine tours with some other award winning operators and experienced our interstate partners experience, knowledge and hospitality whilst consuming some outstanding wines (not as outstanding as ours).

We enjoyed the scenery and history as we looked, listened and learned ways to fine tune our already famous VIP tours that we conduct up in the Hunter Valley.

The trip has given us a few new ideas and we hope to be able to incorporate these into our tours. These little extras, we believe will add to your enjoyment and pleasure for your next Hunter Valley Wine Country experience with Wine Country Hire Cars.

Cold Winds, Open Fires and of course a bottle of fine Hunter Valley Wine.

Yes it is that time of year when Jack Frost rears his little head and we all go looking for the warm clothes.

Winter is one of the most romantic times to visit Hunter Valley Wine Country and with Wine Country Hire Cars as your Chauffeur the scene is set for a memorable and relaxing getaway.

There are a large selection of resorts, guesthouses and B&Bs to pick from and if you are really confused just give us a call and we will assist you with your choice because we want you to remember your visit and it is not only your Chauffeur driven wine tour you want to remember it is the whole Wine Country experience.

We will help you find that special wine or maybe a luscious port or muscat to sip as you cuddle up in front of the fire looking back at the days events and giggling to yourself.

Call today and let us help you plan your romantic Wine Country Getaway

Wine Country Hire Cars is a direct offshoot of Aussie Wine Tours. Both companies are owned by Mr Perfectionist Peter Kane. The idea behind the hire cars was to give our customers a choice.

The choice of either joining other people on one of the buses or to do it their way and customise the whole day to their own likes and dislikes in one of the cars. So far the concept has been well patronised with a lot of repeat and new customers trying the Hire Car side of the business. Some people still want to join in with the groups and have the party atmosphere whilst others just want to do their own thing, visit the smaller wineries the ones buses cannot go to, or just customise the whole day to suit their own needs. We are more than happy to help with any ideas you may have because with over 10 years in the wine tour industry here in the hunter and being the founder of Aussie Wine Tours a company that is featured in a publication called AUSTRALIA'S BEST WINE TOURS you can rest assured that we know how to do it right.

So when you are deciding about what to do to celebrate your next anniversary or special occasion give us a call because we can give you some great ideas to think about.