Valley Rising 2026 sits on the final weekend of NSW Wine Month. The festival runs Saturday 28 November, 11:30am, to Sunday 29 November, 6:30pm, with the same hours on both days. NSW Wine Month runs 1 to 30 November 2026. It's the last weekend of the month, which ends on Monday 30 November.
That closing weekend leaves you room for more than one tasting. The same program lists the Adina GT Room Tasting Experience at Adina Vineyard & Olive Grove, Lovedale, 6 to 29 November, 11:30am to 4pm, so it's still open on both festival days. One weekend can hold a festival session in Pokolbin and a seated tasting in Lovedale.
The festival has also moved. The inaugural edition in 2025 was held at Pokolbin Community Hall, and the 2026 edition is at Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, 15 Thompsons Road, Pokolbin. The hours have held: a participating producer listed 11:30am to 6:30pm for 2025. That's seven hours a day and 14 across the weekend. It's more tasting time than most people want in one stretch, which is why we at HV Tours would split the weekend in two.
When and where is Valley Rising 2026?
Source: NSW Wine
Valley Rising runs on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November, 11:30am to 6:30pm each day, at Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, 15 Thompsons Road, Pokolbin NSW 2320.
It's an ordinary weekend. No NSW public holiday falls on 28 or 29 November, and the next is Christmas Day, Friday 25 December. You won't be planning around a long-weekend crowd, but you also won't get a spare Monday to recover.
For a sense of the drive, NSW Wine's listing for the Adina tasting puts Lovedale around 90 minutes from Sydney's North Shore and under an hour from Newcastle. Most visitors from either city will want to stay at least one night to make use of both days.
Why a festival of makers without cellar doors is worth the trip
You won't have the opportunity to find these producers anywhere else.
A cellar-door day takes you to the winery. Valley Rising works the other way round: the makers come to one venue. The listing calls it the Hunter Valley's ultimate celebration of independent, next-generation winemaking. It promises forward-thinking producers from across the valley showing innovative styles, bold experiments, and reinvented classics.
The 2025 edition shows why that matters. It featured 13 producers, wine and spirit makers who don't have cellar doors of their own. One of them described the festival as the only place to taste their wines.
So treat it differently from a winery crawl. You're there to try makers you can't drop in on next month. Tasting widely and buying the bottle you liked best on the day makes more sense here than it would at a cellar door you can revisit.
What changed from 2025, and what to check
| Detail | 2025 (inaugural) | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 29 to 30 Nov 2025Source: NSW Wine | Sat 28 Nov to Sun 29 Nov 2026Source: NSW Wine |
| Venue | Pokolbin Community HallSource: NSW Wine | Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, 15 Thompsons Rd, PokolbinSource: NSW Wine |
| Hours | 11:30am to 6:30pmSource: Bad Neighbours Wine | 11:30 am to 6:30 pm both daysSource: NSW Wine |
| Producers | 13 featuredSource: NSW Wine | Line-up on the organiser's pageSource: NSW Wine |
| Entry terms | “Entry is free, cups & tastings charged, wines available to purchase on the day”Source: Bad Neighbours Wine | Ticketing and entry terms on the organiser's pageSource: NSW Wine |
Some details are confirmed for 2026: the dates, the hours and the new venue. For the 2026 producer line-up, ticketing and entry terms, go straight to the festival's own site, hvrising.org.
Don't assume 2025's terms carry over. In 2025, a participating producer's page said entry was free, cups and tastings were charged and wines were available to purchase on the day. A new venue can mean new arrangements, so read the 2026 terms before you set a budget.
How to pair the festival with a cellar-door day
Source: NSW Wine, Hunter Valley Gardens
With seven hours a day on offer, you don't need to pick between the festival and the cellar doors. Two shapes work well.
Festival one day, cellar doors the other. Spend Saturday at Cypress Lakes and keep Sunday for the wineries you already love, or reverse it. This is the gentlest option on your palate.
Cellar door in the morning, festival in the afternoon. The Adina GT Room tasting in Lovedale opens at 11:30am and runs to 4pm, the same opening time as Valley Rising's 11:30am start. A late-morning tasting followed by a festival afternoon fits inside the festival's hours. Cellar-door opening times vary, so confirm each one directly before you lock in a plan.
If you're new to the districts, our Lovedale spotlight and our piece on the best time of day for a wine tour will help you decide which half of the day suits which stop.
Staying the night? The festival weekend falls inside the Christmas Lights Spectacular season at Hunter Valley Gardens, which runs Friday 30 October 2026 to Sunday 31 January 2027. The lights run 5:30pm to 10:30pm, last entry 9:30pm. That leaves room for a festival afternoon and an evening under the lights. Our Christmas lights guide covers the night itself.
Getting home: tasting and the NSW limits
NSW Government: it's impossible for you to estimate your own BAC.
Source: NSW Government
A tasting weekend adds up, one small pour at a time. NSW sets the limit for a full (unrestricted) licence at under 0.05 BAC. For learner, P1 and P2 drivers the limit is zero. Drivers of public passenger vehicles, including buses, coaches, taxis, rideshare and chauffeur-driven hire cars, must be under 0.02, a stricter line than the one for a private driver on a full licence.
You can't judge your own blood alcohol level by how you feel: NSW says it's impossible for you to estimate your own BAC, because size, weight, tiredness and serving size all change it, and the only way to be sure you're under the limit is not to drink at all.
Police can also random breath test any driver at any time, and refusing an RBT is an offence. Penalties include fines, licence loss, prison or an alcohol interlock.
Our view is simple. If you're going to taste, someone else should drive. That might be a designated driver in your group who isn't drinking, a shuttle, or a tour. HV Tours has run small group, private and couples wine tasting tours through Pokolbin, Lovedale and Cessnock since 2015, so the cellar-door half of your weekend is exactly what we do. Our guide to booking a private wine tour walks through how that works, and group wine tours suit a bigger party.
Planning around mobility needs
A festival venue and a cellar door can differ a lot underfoot. If anyone in your group uses a wheelchair or walks with difficulty, ask the festival about access at Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort through hvrising.org before you go.
For the cellar-door half, this is where HV Tours is strongest. Our wheelchair-accessible tours use a minibus with a hydraulic lift, and we visit venues we've vetted. Our guide for seniors and guests with mobility needs has more detail.
The weekend at a glance
Dates
Sat 28 Nov to Sun 29 Nov 2026
Source: NSW Wine
Hours
11:30 am - 6:30 pm daily
Source: NSW Wine
Venue
Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, 15 Thompsons Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
Source: NSW Wine
NSW BAC limits
- Full licence: under 0.05
- L, P1 and P2: 0
- Public passenger vehicles: under 0.02
Source: NSW Government
2025 edition: 13 featured producers
Source: NSW Wine, NSW Government
Keep the checked details in one place: Saturday 28 November to Sunday 29 November 2026, 11:30am to 6:30pm, at Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, Pokolbin. The NSW limits are under 0.05 on a full licence, zero for L, P1 and P2, and under 0.02 for public passenger vehicle drivers. The rest, line-up and entry terms included, sits on the festival's own site.
Plan your Valley Rising weekend with HV Tours
The festival is the half of the weekend you book with the organisers. The other half, the cellar doors and getting between them without anyone watching their glass, is the half we can help with. Tell us which day you're at Cypress Lakes, who's coming and whether anyone needs wheelchair access. We'll talk through a tasting day that fits around it.
Send us an enquiry, call 0456 737 888 or email info@hvtours.com.au.
Sources
- https://www.hvrising.org/
- https://www.nswwine.com.au/nsw-wine-month-calendar-of-events/valley-rising
- https://www.nswwine.com.au/nsw-wine-month-calendar-of-events
- https://www.nswwine.com.au/nsw-wine-month-calendar-of-events/2b1wrn4is5jtf415iod1ov12mns6ro
- https://www.badneighbourswine.com.au/events/valley-rising
- https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/driving-nsw/roads-safety-and-rules/safe-driving/alcohol-and-drugs
- https://www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/public-holidays
- https://www.huntervalleygardens.com.au/christmas-lights-spectacular-faqs/
Pictures in this guide are illustrations, not photos of our jobs.
