We Came to the Hunter Valley with an Itinerary. Then We Arrived at Winmark

We came to the Hunter Valley with plans. Quite a few plans, actually. There were other wineries we could visit, places we could explore and the possibility of going out for a lovely, quiet, uninterrupted dinner. You know, the kind where nobody needs their food cut up, nobody announces they need the toilet the second your meal arrives, and you can potentially finish an entire conversation before forgetting what you were talking about.

But then we arrived at Winmark, and somewhere between the villa, the pool, the vineyards, the art, the wine, the picnic hamper and the novelty of having absolutely nobody asking us for anything, our carefully considered itinerary quietly disappeared. Because we realised something rather quickly: Winmark had everything we needed. More importantly, for a group of mums who spend most of their lives running at a million miles an hour, it gave us something we rarely give ourselves: permission to stop.

First, Let’s Talk About Why Mums Need the Mumcation

There is something slightly ridiculous about how difficult it can feel for mums to go away. We know we need a break. We tell our friends they need a break. We read articles about self-care and nod enthusiastically while simultaneously mentally calculating what’s for dinner, whether anyone has a clean school uniform, who needs to be where tomorrow and whether that email from school required us to actually do something.

The mental load doesn’t clock off just because we’re tired. Most of the time, even when we’re technically sitting down, our brains aren’t. There is always another list running somewhere in the background. Lunchboxes. Washing. Appointments. Sport. Work. Birthdays. Groceries. The mysterious thing the kids need for school tomorrow that they have known about for three weeks but have chosen to mention at 8.37pm.

So when I was invited to experience Winmark Wines in the Hunter Valley and given the rather wonderful job of inviting some friends along, I didn’t need much convincing. A mums’ weekend away sounded pretty close to heaven. The funny thing was, even then, we started planning what we would do. Because apparently mums can’t even relax without creating an itinerary for it.

Arriving at Rockview Villa and Actually Landing

Winmark is in Broke in the Hunter Valley, close enough to Sydney to make a weekend escape realistic, but far enough away that the landscape immediately makes you feel as though you have properly gone somewhere. I arrived at our Rockview villa before the rest of the group, which gave me something I almost never get at home: time completely to myself. No rushing to unpack before somebody needed me. No immediate request for a snack. No small person following me into the bathroom.

We had also managed to score an absolute scorcher of a weekend, so my first order of business was a swim. The birds were singing, the property was peaceful, the countryside stretched out around me and for the first time in what felt like forever, there was nowhere I had to be. I even had a bath. Alone. Mothers everywhere will understand the significance of this.

It was the perfect way to actually land before everyone else arrived, because that transition from everyday mum life into time away isn’t always instantaneous. Sometimes your body arrives before your brain does, and Winmark gave mine time to catch up.

Then the Mums Arrived, Along With Enough Food to Survive a Small Apocalypse

When the others arrived, it became immediately obvious that you can take the mums away from the kids, but you cannot take away our deeply ingrained fear that someone, somewhere, might get hungry. We had packed for a weekend away like we were travelling with a small army of children. Snacks galore. Chips, dips, cheese, nibbles and enough surplus food to suggest we were preparing to be stranded at Winmark for considerably longer than two nights. Never mind that we were staying on a beautiful wine estate in the Hunter Valley with food readily available; years of leaving the house with emergency snacks apparently isn’t something you can just switch off.

One particularly forward-thinking friend had even brought pizza bases because she correctly predicted that at some point we would get hungry, get comfortable and have absolutely no desire to leave. It turned out to be possibly the greatest piece of mum planning of the entire weekend.

So our grand idea of getting dressed up and heading out for an uninterrupted dinner disappeared almost immediately. Instead, we made pizzas, opened the delicious sparkling Winmark had left for us and settled in for the night. We talked, laughed and ate our food while looking out over the beautiful vineyards.

And you know what? It was better than going out.

There was no restaurant booking to make, no Uber to order, no clock watching and no need to be anywhere at a particular time. We could simply sit, drink our wine and finish an entire conversation without someone asking for a snack. Which was slightly ironic, considering we had brought enough snacks to feed them anyway.

The First Stage of a Mumcation: Actually Switching Off

It takes a little while to shift out of mum mode when you’re normally the person who knows where everything is, what everyone is doing and what needs to happen next. But after a fireside chat, plenty of laughs and the realisation that everything at home was ticking along perfectly well without us, we started to properly settle into the weekend.

Every one of us climbed into a double bed that we knew we did not have to share with a child. There were no little feet appearing in our ribs at 2am and, most importantly, no 5am wake-up. By that point Winmark could probably have sent us home and we’d already have called the weekend a success.

Waking Up Without Anyone Waking You Up

There is a very particular kind of peace that comes from waking up naturally when you’re a parent. The next morning, Winmark was beautifully still and, for once, we could decide exactly what we wanted to do. And then there were the kangaroos.

Waking up to them grazing around the property was one of those little reminders that we really weren’t in Sydney anymore. We’d spot them in the mornings and again as we wandered around the estate, casually appearing among the vineyards and sculptures as though they were simply another part of the Winmark art collection.

While some of us were more than happy to enjoy the local wildlife at this leisurely pace, one of our friends is an avid runner and had headed out early to explore trails further around the Broke area. She returned with a slightly more adventurous wildlife encounter: a snake.

To be very clear, this wasn’t on the Winmark property, but further afield on her run. It confirmed two things for me: the Hunter countryside is very much alive, and I had made an excellent decision not to take up running that particular morning. Coffee in the villa felt considerably safer.

The Itinerary Officially Dies

This was supposed to be the day we explored. We had talked about visiting other wineries and heading out around the Hunter Valley, and then we looked at our villa pool. Our motivation disappeared remarkably quickly.

Instead, we grabbed coffees from Winmark’s ridiculously cute vintage coffee cart, wandered through the onsite Art Gallery and started exploring the estate itself. What I hadn’t fully appreciated before arriving was just how much there was to discover without ever getting back into the car.

Winmark today sits across 130 acres, with around 28 acres dedicated to Chardonnay vines. Yet the vineyard is only part of the landscape. There are gardens, mature trees, the dramatic Yellow Rock escarpment in the distance, art tucked into unexpected corners and sculptures that seem to change depending on where you’re standing.

Even the trees have been considered, with deciduous plantings designed to give the landscape a different personality as the seasons change. This isn’t somewhere that has simply planted vines and built a cellar door; the entire property feels curated. We jumped aboard a buggy tour to explore more, which, let’s face it, was also far more appealing than walking in the heat.

The Stories Hidden Around Winmark

This was where Winmark became much more interesting to me. We were lucky enough to have owner Karin Adcock behind the wheel of our buggy, and it didn’t take long to realise just how much she genuinely loves this property. Her passion is apparent in the way she talks about the art, the landscape, its history and all the little details you might otherwise drive straight past.

Perhaps my favourite moment came when we spotted kangaroos and, naturally, out came our cameras. Then I glanced to the side and saw Karin doing exactly the same thing, pulling out her phone to capture them too.

Here was someone who had seen these kangaroos countless times, yet she was still just as excited by the sight of them as we were. She told us she never tires of the natural beauty around her, from the changing light hitting the sculptures to the wildlife and those glorious Hunter Valley sunsets. There was something rather lovely about seeing that after all these years, she still stops to appreciate it herself.

And as we continued around the property, you began to understand why. There seems to be a story around almost every corner. Karin took us past David Ball’s monumental steel sculpture Biosis, one of Winmark’s defining works and the first of the major sculptures to find a home here. Today, art is woven throughout the estate, with more than 50 outdoor works as well as an Art Gallery featuring Australian and international artists.

Even the landscape comes with its own stories. Pooles Rock, the enormous natural rock formation on the property, is said to have been used as a sleeping place by English convict Richard Poole in the early 1800s, with the property itself formerly known as Pooles Rock before becoming Winmark.

As we moved from one work to the next, Karin explained the stories and thinking behind them. There was Fight or Flight, works incorporating materials given another life and community connections through ceramic pieces created in their hosted workshops. But the one that really stayed with me was Portals of Illusion.

Viewed from the right position, its gates appear to be the same size, playing with perspective and how we see what lies ahead. Karin explained it as a reflection of life’s journey and how easy it is to become so focused on reaching the proverbial pot of gold in the distance that we forget to appreciate everything around us along the way. And there it was. The message that pretty much summed up our entire weekend.

We had arrived at Winmark with an itinerary, already thinking about where we were going next, and then spent the weekend slowly abandoning it. For a group of mums whose everyday lives are so often about the next thing that needs to happen, there was something rather fitting about standing there being reminded to enjoy exactly where we were.

By the time the buggy tour finished, it hadn’t really felt like a tour at all. It felt more like Karin had taken us around her much-loved home, stopping along the way to share the stories that make it special to her. And after a morning exploring the property, we’d also managed to build up a bit of an appetite.

The Picnic Hamper That Saved Us From Having to Go Anywhere

Of course, our first instinct was to start discussing what we should do for lunch. Should we find somewhere nearby? Get takeaway? Actually get back in the car and go somewhere? And then we remembered something rather important: Winmark does picnic hampers.

They arrive in beautiful wicker picnic baskets, complete with a Winmark picnic rug and all the good stuff tucked inside: cheese, cured meats, pâté, freshly warmed baguettes and locally sourced treats designed for grazing rather than rushing. It was exactly the sort of lunch we wanted, and once again meant there was absolutely no reason to leave.

So we didn’t.

We found ourselves a spot, rolled out the rug, opened the basket and settled in. No booking to make, no getting dressed up, no driving anywhere and no clock telling us when we needed to move on.

And I think this was the point where I really understood why Winmark works so well for this kind of weekend, whether you’re escaping with the mums or coming away with the family. There is plenty to do when you want to do something, but you don’t have to constantly leave the property in search of the next experience. Everything can happen at a much slower pace.

And with kids, not having to constantly bundle everyone into the car and move on to the next activity has its own appeal. Winmark gives you plenty to experience, while also making it perfectly acceptable to put down the itinerary, roll out the picnic rug and simply stay exactly where you are.

Then Came the Chardonnay Lesson

And when we did finally feel like doing something again, we didn’t have very far to go. After a long lunch, a little more pool time and absolutely no urgency whatsoever, we eventually wandered over for something that felt suitably important for a weekend in the Hunter Valley: a wine tasting.

Now, Winmark Wines specialises in Chardonnay, and I’ll admit there was a tiny part of me that wondered how different a whole tasting of Chardonnay could actually be. Quite different, as it turns out.

Our tasting was with Aimee, who took us through the Winmark range and showed us just how much can happen to one grape depending on the fruit, fermentation, oak and winemaking techniques. Which brings me to the technical part. And here comes the science.

Normally this is about the point where my ADHD brain checks out. The minute something starts feeling like a lecture, my attention has a habit of wandering off somewhere else entirely. But Aimee was so engaging in the way she explained what we were tasting, how it had been made and why each glass tasted different that she held my attention the entire time.

I wasn’t just drinking Chardonnay; I actually wanted to understand what was happening in the glass. This is serious Chardonnay country. Winmark Wines is now recognised as a Halliday 5 Red Star Winery, and the vineyard has a history stretching back decades, with Chardonnay vines first planted on the site in 1972. Today, Chardonnay isn’t simply one of the wines produced here; the entire Winmark Wines identity has been built around specialising in the variety.

We started the tasting with Biosis Blanc de Blancs 2023, named after the David Ball sculpture we’d seen earlier on our tour of the estate. And suddenly the different parts of Winmark started connecting. The sculpture we’d stood beside that morning was now the name on the bottle in front of us.

Made using the traditional method, the second fermentation happens inside the bottle to create those beautiful bubbles. We also learnt about riddling, where the bottles are gradually turned to move sediment towards the neck before disgorgement and dosage.

There was considerably more happening inside my glass than I’d appreciated while happily drinking the sparkling beside the villa the night before. From there, the Chardonnay story continued. Rusty’s Run 2024 showed us the fresher, lighter side of Winmark’s Chardonnay, while Expressions demonstrated how the use and age of oak can change what ultimately arrives in your glass. The Single Vineyard Reserve offered another expression again, before Icon 72 took us back to the property’s beginnings, its name referencing 1972 when Chardonnay was first planted here.

We also learnt how things I had never really considered before, from the age of a barrel to the toast chosen by the cooper, can influence a wine. I’ll admit, before this tasting I wasn’t contemplating the toast level of French oak every time I poured a Chardonnay. Now I probably will.

And that’s what I liked about the tasting. You don’t have to arrive knowing anything about wine, and you certainly don’t need to pretend that you do. I’m by no means a wine connoisseur. I know what I like, but ask me to explain exactly why I like it and things can get a little sketchy.

Here, though, you could simply drink something delicious, ask the questions you actually wanted to ask and discover that there was a much bigger story sitting inside your glass. In our case, Aimee somehow managed to teach a group of mums about fermentation, French oak and riddling while keeping my ADHD brain firmly in the room. That alone deserves five stars.

From Pooles Rock to Winmark

The wine tasting also gave us a little more insight into how Winmark Wines itself came to be. Long before we were sitting there discussing French oak and feeling considerably more educated about barrel toast, the property was known as Pooles Rock, a renowned Hunter Valley vineyard that had eventually fallen into disrepair.

In 2016, Danish-born businesswoman Karin Adcock purchased the property and began transforming it into the Winmark we were experiencing that weekend. She chose the name Winmark from the Danish words “vin mark”, meaning “field of wine”, a nod to both her Danish heritage and the vineyard she was bringing back to life.

But Karin’s vision extended well beyond restoring the vines. She set about creating a destination, bringing together the gardens, accommodation, art, sculptures, Cellar Door and surrounding landscape to create the Winmark we had spent the weekend exploring.

Today, Winmark is recognised as a Halliday 5 Red Star Winery and was named Hunter Valley Cellar Door of the Year in 2023, but what I loved was that none of those credentials made it feel formal or intimidating.

You don’t need to know your French oak from your stainless steel barrel to enjoy being here. Trust me, I certainly didn’t.

The same went for the art. At one point in the Art Gallery I had to ask what “mixed media” actually meant. I was half expecting one of those slightly toff “oh dear, you don’t know?” moments, but there wasn’t even a hint of it. Instead, it was simply explained to me with ease, and suddenly I knew something I hadn’t known five minutes earlier.

Wine, art, Chardonnay, mixed media… apparently this mumcation was becoming educational.

And perhaps that’s what Karin has managed to get so right. There is serious wine, serious art, history and an enormous amount of thought behind Winmark, but none of it comes with an expectation that you should already know what you’re talking about. You can ask questions, learn something new or simply enjoy what’s in front of you, all at your own pace and with zero judgement. Which, as we were quickly discovering, is exactly what makes Winmark such a lovely place to stay.

Winmark Is More Than Somewhere to Sleep

There are Hunter Valley trips where your accommodation is simply where you return at the end of the day. Winmark isn’t really that kind of stay. The accommodation becomes part of the experience, particularly when you’re travelling as a group, and having a pool at the villa was a huge plus for us on a hot weekend.

And while I was very happily experiencing Winmark without my children on this particular trip, there were quite a few moments over the weekend when I found myself thinking, the kids would actually love this. Not in a “this would be lovely if they sat quietly while I drank Chardonnay” kind of way either. There is genuinely plenty here for them to do.

Kids are given their own map to turn the Sculpture Park into a treasure hunt, ticking off the works as they find them, and there is also a playground, swimming pools and tennis courts. Even the Discover Winmark experience has been designed with children in mind, with their own sculpture activity and kid-friendly picnic inclusions alongside the experience for adults.

It’s a small detail, but an important one when you’re a parent. The kids haven’t simply been added onto something designed entirely for grown-ups; there is something in it for them too.

And if you’re travelling with the extended family or another family, there are larger accommodation options including Mio Monte, with Winmark’s accommodation collectively catering for groups of up to 26 guests. Suddenly you’re not just looking at a mums’ weekend. You’re looking at the grandparents, cousins, another family or that group holiday you’ve all been talking about organising but nobody has actually booked.

Would I come back with the family? Absolutely. But I’m also very glad my first experience of Winmark involved waking naturally, uninterrupted conversations and nobody asking me what was for dinner. This particular weekend belonged to the mums.

And Just When We Thought Winmark Couldn’t Get Any Better…

There was one final piece of the mumcation puzzle waiting for us on our last morning. Just before checkout, we had booked massages to come to the property. Because apparently once you’ve abandoned the itinerary, spent two days beside a pool, eaten picnic hampers and enjoyed some very good Chardonnay, the only logical way to finish is by having someone arrive at your villa and give you a massage.

Rather than setting up inside one of the bedrooms, we asked the massage team to put the table in Rockview’s enclosed alfresco area. It was screened in, so we had the best of both worlds: protected from the bugs but still completely connected to everything happening outside. Lying there, we could hear the birds, the breeze and the sounds of the property around us while getting a massage without having to go anywhere.

And really, could there have been a more appropriate ending to this particular weekend? We’d arrived with plans to go everywhere, and by our final morning even the massage was coming to us.

Put This One in the Group Chat

If your group chat has been talking about organising a mums’ weekend for approximately three years but nobody has actually managed to make it happen, consider this your sign. Pick the friends. Choose the weekend. Book the villa. Then resist every mum instinct you have to create a colour-coded itinerary.

Because sometimes the best weekends aren’t about how much you manage to squeeze in. They’re about finally having the time and space to do absolutely nothing you don’t feel like doing. And I think we mums could all do with a little more of that.

For more information about Winmark Wines, its accommodation, Cellar Door and experiences, visit Winmark Wines.

Disclaimer: Parenthood360 was hosted by Winmark Wines for this experience. There was no payment for coverage and no obligation to publish. All experiences, opinions and slightly overenthusiastic thoughts about uninterrupted sleep and Chardonnay are entirely our own.