Hunter Valley wine tasting at Ember Hill
Taste it slowly.
Four ways to taste traditional-method sparkling where it is made, from a 45-minute pour at the bench to a morning disgorging your own bottle with the winemaker.
Tastings
Hunter Valley wine tasting, one method at a time
A Hunter Valley wine tasting at Ember Hill stays with one style. Every wine Ember Hill makes is traditional-method sparkling, so a tasting here is a chance to see how far one way of making wine can travel: from a crisp chardonnay base wine still in tank, through three and five and six years on lees, to a bottle that waited ten years in the cellar under the hill before anyone took the cork.
There are four experiences, and each goes a little further into the cellar. The cellar door tasting is the place to start. The cheese tasting slows it down on the terrace. The riddling room tour takes you underground to the racks, and the disgorging masterclass puts the bottle in your hands.
Every experience is for guests aged 18 and over, and every one is poured in small measures. This is a sparkling wine tasting with no shortcuts, so plan for a designated driver, who we will look after with water and soft drinks, or a tour or a transfer. Read our notes on getting here and getting home before you set out.
The four experiences
Choose how deep you go
Prices are per person. Book any of them below, or walk in for the cellar door tasting on a weekday.
Cellar door tasting
The four cuvées and a glass of base wine from tank, poured at the bench with the riddling racks behind you. Up to 8 at a bench. Tasting the base wine first shows you what the years on lees add: the Blanc de Blancs starts as a lean, lemony chardonnay and comes back as brioche and chalk.
Bubbles and cheese
Four cuvées, each with a Hunter cheese chosen for it, served on the terrace above the vines. Up to 8 guests. We talk you through why each pair works, and you leave knowing what to put next to a bottle at home.
The riddling room tour
Down into the cellar under the hill: the racks, the bottles at every stage, a turn of the bottle yourself, and a tasting at the end. Up to 10 guests. The cellar is reached by stairs and stays cool all year, so bring a layer.
Disgorging masterclass
Disgorge your own bottle by hand with the winemaker, dose it, cork it and take it home. Up to 6 guests. You learn to read the sediment in the neck, release the yeast with one clean movement, and set the dosage that decides how dry the finished wine is.
Bubbles and cheese
A cheese tasting in the Hunter Valley, on the terrace
Sparkling wine and cheese work for a plain reason: the acid and the bead cut through fat, and the toasty, nutty notes that come from years on lees sit easily beside a washed rind or an aged hard cheese. Our cheese tasting puts that to work with four cuvées and four Hunter cheeses, one chosen for each wine.
The Rosé usually meets something fresh and soft. The Late Disgorged, with its honey and hazelnut, gets the oldest and firmest cheese on the board. The terrace looks over the vines towards the ridge, and on a still afternoon it is the most comfortable seat on the estate.
Below ground
What happens in the cellar under the hill
The riddling room tour and the masterclass both start where the wine spends most of its life. After the base wine is bottled with yeast and a little sugar and sealed with a crown cap, it ferments a second time in the bottle and then rests on the spent yeast, the lees, for years. That is where the fine bead and the bread-crust notes come from.
Before release, each bottle is turned by hand on the riddling racks, a little each day, until the sediment slides down into the neck. On the tour you take a bottle in your own hands and give it its turn. In the masterclass you go a step further: open the crown cap by hand, let the pressure throw the sediment out, then dose, cork and wire the bottle you will drink later.
If you want the whole process laid out before you come, our page on the vineyard and the method walks through it step by step, and the cuvées shows how long each wine spends on lees.
Before you book
Good to know
- Age
- All experiences are for guests 18 and over. Bring ID; we check anyone who looks under 25
- Walk-ins
- Welcome for the cellar door tasting on weekdays. Book ahead for weekends and for every other experience
- Groups
- Groups of 9 to 20: $35 a person, booked ahead. More than 20: ask us
- Access
- The cellar door tasting and the cheese tasting are on one level. The riddling room tour and the masterclass go down stairs
- Getting home
- Arrange a designated driver, a tour or a transfer before you arrive
Taste the base wine first. Everything after it is what time in the bottle does.
Groups
Tastings for groups and celebrations
Groups of 9 to 20 are welcome at $35 a person, booked ahead, with a bench set aside and the wines open and cold when you arrive. For more than 20, send us the date and the numbers through the contact page and we will find a time that suits the cellar.
A tasting pairs well with lunch at Lees, our restaurant, where the matched menu pours the same four cuvées with three courses. Book both together on weekends, when tables and benches both fill early. For a larger celebration, the barrel hall and the chapel are on our weddings and events page.
Tour operators can book the same way. Send the date, the number of guests and an arrival window, and we will hold a bench and have the base wine drawn from tank before the bus pulls in. If your group runs late, call ahead from the road and we will move you to the next hour where we can, rather than rush the pour.
Questions
Tasting prices, bookings and children
How much does a wine tasting cost at Ember Hill?
The cellar door tasting is $20 a person for the four cuvées and a glass of base wine from tank, and takes about 45 minutes. Bubbles and cheese is $45 for an hour, the riddling room tour is $65 for 75 minutes, and the disgorging masterclass is $185 for two and a half hours. Groups of 9 to 20 pay $35 a person, booked ahead.
Do I need to book a Hunter Valley wine tasting in advance?
For the cellar door tasting on a weekday, you can usually walk in and join the next session on the hour. On weekends we recommend booking, as benches fill by late morning. Bubbles and cheese, the riddling room tour and the disgorging masterclass all need a booking, as places are limited to between 6 and 10 guests per session.
What cheese is served with the bubbles and cheese tasting?
Each of the four cuvées is served with a Hunter cheese chosen to suit it, so the board changes as the cheeses and the wines change through the year. As a rule, fresher, softer cheeses go with the Rosé and the Blanc de Blancs, and older, firmer cheeses with the Late Disgorged. Tell us about any allergies when you book.
Can children come to a wine tasting?
Children are welcome at the cellar door with an adult and can stay on the lawn, but every bookable experience is for guests aged 18 and over. That includes the cheese tasting, the riddling room tour and the disgorging masterclass. If you are visiting as a family, one adult can take the children outside while the others taste at the bench.
What do you do in the disgorging masterclass?
You spend two and a half hours with the winemaker on a Saturday morning, starting at 10am. Each guest takes a bottle that has finished its time on lees and the riddling racks, opens the crown cap by hand so the pressure throws out the yeast, sets the dosage, then corks and wires it. You take that bottle home. There are six places.
Is the riddling room tour suitable for everyone?
The tour goes down a flight of stairs into the cellar under the hill, so it isn't step-free, and the cellar stays cool all year, so bring a jumper. It runs Friday to Sunday at 11am and 2pm for up to 10 guests and lasts 75 minutes, with a tasting at the end. Guests must be 18 or over.
Book your tasting
Start with the cellar door tasting at $20, or go below ground on the riddling room tour. Every experience is for guests 18 and over.