The hottest ticket in Hunter Valley is dinner with the region's wine guru

"If someone thinks they know everything about wine, they actually don't know enough to realise they don't," quips winemaker Andrew Margan of Margan Wines over a glass of his 2014 Shiraz.

And if he doesn’t know everything about wine, I’m not sure who would. At age seven, Margan knew he wanted to be a winemaker, at 16, he created his first vintage and then in 1997, he established his eponymous winery in Broke.

I’m chatting to Margan at Hunter Valley's Resort's ‘By The Fireside’ Winemaker Dinner, an intimate feast hosted every Friday night, with a different winemaker from the region, during the Hunter Valley’s Food and Wine Festival.

Each dinner hosts up to 30 people, costs $120 for four courses and matching wines, and isn’t quite like anything I’ve ever experienced before. For one thing, my company is a motley crew – a Swedish jazz musician, a tradie from Wollongong celebrating his 20th birthday and a young mum trying to settle her two-year-old in-between courses – yet the wine (or abundance of it) soon brings everyone together.

The meal has all the elements of a very good home-cooked dinner. While the ingredients might seem basic, the produce is so fresh you don’t need much to bring out the flavours. Highlights included the fresh beer bread doused in olive oil, heirloom carrots and baked apple topped with vanilla bean ice cream.   

Andrew Margan of Margan Wines.

With a growing trend of farm to fork and people seeking knowledge for what’s on their plate or in their glass, Hunter Valley Resort business development manager, Kylie Collis explains the dinner has grown in popularity and size since it was first introduced two years ago.

The Margan Winery itself is another example of province grown and province used. Along with featuring picturesque vineyards, a quaint barrel room and a welcoming cellar door, Margan and his wife Lisa have created a restaurant that’s more than just a vehicle for pushing the company’s award winning Cabernet Sauvignon.

Menus are constructed around what is harvested from the one acre kitchen garden and orchard in order to maintain an in-season focus. (So much so when I stopped by for lunch, I spotted the chef picking a bunch of herbs that later found their way onto my plate.) The estate also produces olives, free range eggs, honey and lambs, proof that the region is just as much for the foodie as it is the wine lover. After all, a wine without context is just a beverage.

The Hunter Valley Food and Wine Festival runs throughout May and June.  Check out the full event list, including chocolate tasting and paella making classes, here.