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After a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney and four packed days of touring, dining, and dancing into the wee hours at an Aussie wedding, my husband and I picked up a rental car and escaped out of the harborside metropolis for a few nights of peace and quiet. We were en route to the beach town of Byron Bay and hoped that a two-night stop in Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest wine region, would be a balm for our jet-lagged souls.
Hunter Valley lies just two hours north of Sydney, and the region offers plenty of reasonably priced rooms at golf resorts and hotels that host buses full of Shiraz-swilling tourists. Corporate conference aesthetics aren’t my bag, so instead, wine industry friends recommended that I book an Airbnb, stock up at local markets (aka providores), drink Sémillon, and relax.
One look at the Airbnb listing for Dimensions X Farmstay, and I was sold—despite a price tag that exceeded most of the region’s accommodations. The modern, prefab home was designed by Peter Stutchbury, an Australian leader in sustainable design. It features a calming, minimalist interior with natural wood, and sliding doors that opened wide to a view of vineyards and the Brokenback Mountain range. As a bonus, you'll find two of the Dimensions X homes located on co-owner Oscar Martin's Krinklewood Estate, an organic and biodynamic winery.
When we arrived midday, Martin was quick to greet us and provide a tour of the home and estate. Even though our stay would be short, we appreciated the roomy closets and second bedroom which we used to tuck away our suitcases. A Breville espresso maker hid inside a kitchen cabinet, and a turntable and eclectic record collection—Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, Van Morrison, Bob Marley—waited for dusk and drinks in the living room.
After getting acquainted with the solar- and battery-powered smart home, we walked back to the cellar door (Aussie parlance for a tasting room) to try Krinklewood’s bright and refreshing Sémillon, a crushable Merlot-Mourvedre rosé, and the juicy, red-fruity Wild Shiraz. Soon enough, as other visitors departed the cellar door, we found ourselves alone on the 150-acre property—save for a few discreet vineyard workers and a party of peacocks. Peace.
With summer temperatures exceeding 100°F, we spent most of the remaining daylight hours lounging in the shade by the property’s swimming pool and catching up on vacation novels. (Of note, Dimensions X homes are outfitted with a heater for winter, but no air conditioning.) In the course of an afternoon, the interior shifted from downright hot to breezy and warm. By late evening, with the windows wide open we felt the diurnal winds shift, delivering cool, comfortable air into the valley.
For our second day in Hunter Valley, I booked reservations at some of the region’s more progressive wineries. At Vinden, our first stop, workers had been harvesting Gamay since before dawn, and a young winemaker led us through a tasting of the label’s minimal-intervention wines, including a basket press Shiraz we brought home as a souvenir. Winemaker James Becker met us at his family’s organic Oakvale Winery, where we drank more traditional expressions of the region’s Shiraz and Sémillon grapes. A bottle of M&J Becker’s (an experimental brand created by Becker and his wife Meagan) cheeky “Mysterious Blend” got slurped down a few days later on a balcony in Byron Bay.
Save for those winery visits and a leisurely lunch at Yellow Billy restaurant, my husband and I spent most of our time cocooned in the tranquility of our Airbnb. Before arriving, I stocked up at local shops for our meals: Wollombi Road Providores (passionfruit, avocados, and pasta salad), Pickled Pig Butchery (housemade sausages), Magoony’s Coffee House (breakfast quiche and a baguette), and local cheesemaker, Binnorie. Martin had also pre-filled our refrigerator with pizza fixings. The home comes with an easy-to-use Gozney Roccbox pizza oven on the back porch, and for our first dinner, we drank (more) Sémillon alongside a truffle sausage pie.
We also shot a roll of pictures on the provided Polaroid, posing in the vines and lounging in the warm glow of sunshine; the camera was an unexpected amenity that captured some of our favorite memories from the vacation. On our last night, I drew a warm bath in the home’s outdoor cedar tub—the peacocks the only other living creatures in sight. My husband and I climbed in, and with a glass of Krinklewood rosé in hand, we soaked in the views.
