Tempus Two Winery

I don’t know what everyone else is carrying on about… It’s a winery. It’s one of the biggest in the Hunter Valley, yes a lot of tours are going to stop here, its the Hunter Valley, a lot of tours are going to stop everywhere.
Tempus Two is a stunning venue with a huge open space and plenty of other shops and places to eat connected to it. Some of my favourite wines have always come from TT. Their 2014 Sauvignon blanc is fantastic. now before you form an opinion in your head that I like Sauvignon blanc and therefore don’t know anything else, know this. I don’t like Sauvignon blanc but the one here is made in the french style giving it a much more complex flavour and a lusciousness that isn’t found in marlborough. marlborough! Now THAT’S the McDonalds of wine…
The staff are lovely. the wines are delicious and well crafted. The smelly cheese shop is ok. the thai restaurant is decent. Stop in, try what you want and move on to the next. Stop whinging that there is other people there.

the wines are good. the staff are nice.
the location BLOWS. looking for quaint Napa-​style tasting? …um, this ain’t it. think Mallrats. as others have stated, every bus tour stops here and the «cellar door» is hiding near the back of the large complex of boutique shops and eateries with tables outside. it’s not very kept. i saw no custodians or staff bussing tables or the like. other visitors were sloppy, so there were napkins flying everywhere and every table was dirty.
As for the cellar door proper, it was extremely busy and while the server was nice, she was forced to serve about 3 groups, so we didn’t really get the attention we’d expect. it’s a lovely large scale winery, you can tell. the pours weren’t bad. my friends bought several bottles, but i wasn’t much impressed.
basically, though i enjoyed their wines on the way over to Oz, if we hadn’t been starving and on our way out of town, i would have given Tempus Two a miss.
date of visit: 12/​29/​2014

Wines n stuff. Cheese is good. Overcrowded with wankers.
This is the Maccas of wineries. (it’s even on McDonald’s Road) Every single tour bus from every single tour is going to come here, every single summer weekend day.
That said. Cheese. Go directly to the Smelly cheese shop, do not pass go head immediately inside to the left and into the walk in cheese fridge, by-​passing the free loaders taking a billion toothpick samples of some moldy cow’s milk. Once inside hunt for some goat’s cheese. Take all of it out to the cashier desk on the opposite side of the store, and run. far far away from here.

Incredibly average at the very best. Their wine is decidedly overestimated. Being that there are only about two decent wineries in the hunter, it goes without saying that Tempus is not one of them. The place looks great, packaging is a ten-​thumbs-​up, but looks are ever-​so-​deceiving.
The entire rest of the facilities on site are incredibly average. Smelly cheese shop is decent and ok. The Thai/​Japanese restaurant is entirely missable, and I think there was something else there but it was so unmemorable that I just can’t put my finger on it.
The wine tasting room looks glorious. Then you taste the wine… Then you also taste the apparent scorn of the employees… Seriously, you can only be snobby about your wine when you have good wine. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
Overall, it is one to drive past in order to get to the other average wineries. Gundog is ok except they let you taste the most average wines they have… Strange. Oh here I go talking about how other places are better than the one I’m reviewing. But I guess that happens when a place is just so unforgettably forgettable. It reminds me of a strip mall in America: a bunch of unoccupied spaces with the few occupants being really disappointing.

Overcrowded and average to me. It’s like the Eiffel Tower, Opera House or Statue of Liberty of Hunter Valley (e.g. massive tourist trap). Could barely even taste two wines 10 minutes to closing because of the hoards of people lined up at the counters. Nice view but I’d give it a miss and visit one of the other million boutique wineries that have more personalised service.