Remarkable really, that given the comparatively minuscule size of its wine industry, the Hunter Valley occupies such a prominent place in the consciousness of Australian wine. More remarkable, perhaps, given that its wines have little to do with the mainstream industry or what most people are drinking. Incredible, even, that were it never to have been developed as a wine region before this time, the chances of that happening today would frankly be next to nothing. So thank heavens for a hundred and fifty years of dogged persistence by the area’s wine growers and makers since, tiny as it may be, the Hunter Valley’s importance to Australian wine is nothing short of immeasurable. Geneticists talk about the importance of conserving species and maintaining the diversity of the gene pool. You never know what challenges you might need to overcome in the future and where the resources to do so are going to come from. Not so long ago the Australian wine industry was totally obsessed by cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Today shiraz is back in town, riesling is gaining prominence, even grenache is popular and Italian grapes are being planted everywhere. Semillon could be the next big thing and the Hunter makes Australia’s best. Its shiraz has so little in common with that of the Barossa and McLaren Vale it could almost be a different grape. Popular tastes in wine rarely last a decade without changing. Who knows what might be next? Back in the 1960s the Lower Hunter Valley just to the north of Cessnock was your regular sleepy hollow. A lack of decent roads from the capital protected it from any potential horde of weekend visitors from Sydney and most of its wineries disposed of their produce in bulk. Only Lindemans, McWilliams and Tulloch actually sold their own branded wines at the start of this decade. The region’s other four makers sold to Lindemans or McWilliams, or else to wine companies interstate. This was the decade of imagination, fired when Dr Max Lake planted the country’s first ’boutique’ or weekend vineyard in 1963. Planted to cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, the depreciatingly named Lake’s Folly was shortly followed by Tamburlaine, Belbourie and then a throng of other large and small developments as white-collar Sydney set about getting itself another lifestyle out of sight of Sydney harbour. Nothing, however, could have prepared the Hunter Valley’s traditional mining community for the wine industry’s invasion of the late 1960s and 1970s. By 1976 over four thousand hectares of vines nudged up against each other, jostling for position and attention. But the ‘seventies were to become the decade of frustration, since the bulk of these plantings were to cabernet sauvignon and semillon, just as the market began its long and enduring affair with chardonnay. Furthermore, much of the land planted to vines was so poor and unfertile that even in good years, yields failed to approach viability. Vineyards began to be traded and uprooted. Belatedly, the ‘eighties saw the Hunter attempt to become part of the ever-globalising Australian industry. Rather than focusing on their potential strengths, wine companies fell for the product manager’s fantasy of creating formulaic brands of the typical wine fruit salad. Chardonnay was introduced, together with sauvignon blanc and verdelho, and unwooded chardonnay, that typically incomplete and unfinished wine, was borne out of economic necessity. Vineyards were then rationalised, the Hunter shrank as the lightened pockets of the white collar brigade retreated to their more familiar corporate domaines, and then the region began its most recent episode of self-discovery. I doubt that the Hunter has ever looked better than it does today. Where once there were disastrously uneconomic vineyards there are now championship golf courses. Where fine food was something you had to bring for yourself and accommodation was non-existent, there is today real energy and style amongst the region’s several fine restaurants, while no Australian wine region could boast as wide a diversity of excellent accommodation. Found near the Pepper Tree winery, Robert’s restaurant is the region’s benchmark, while Blaxland’s and The Cellar at Pokolobin, The Hermitage at the Hunter Resort, Cafe Crocodile on Lovedale Road and Bimbadgen Estate are well worth visiting. Over the years I have enjoyed staying at Peppers Guest House, Cypress Lakes Resort, Hermitage Lodge, Kirkton Park and The Convent, while Olive’s Guest House opposite Brokenwood and The Hunter Resort are widely recommended. The Lower Hunter is dotted with fine B&Bs, information about which is easy to find. Tower Lodge, an astonishingly designed boardroom conference retreat conceived by Len Evans, will inevitably become the region’s most admired address. Importantly, the Hunter’s regeneration goes well below the surface. Its best vineyards, found on volcanic derived red-brown loams, today preen themselves under the best attention they have received for decades. How much they yield is less of an issue today than ever before. It’s quality that counts and it’s quality that pays. Some of the older sites previously uprooted for poor yields despite their quality are now being replanted, but this time with more realistic expectations. Led by labels like Brokenwood’s Graveyard, Tyrrell’s Vat 5, 9 and 11, Lindemans’ Steven Vineyard and Mount Pleasant’s Rosehill, top-notch Hunter shiraz is back under the spotlight. The pending release of these and other shirazes from the two great years of 1998 and 2000 will further brighten their rediscovered lustre. Much of the beauty of top Hunter shiraz lies in its differences from that of other regions. Brokenwood’s Ian Riggs says that if you compare them to the more alcoholic shirazes of McLaren Vale and the Barossa, they appear more mid-weight, even light-bodied in nature. When assessing his wine he looks for earthy, briarwood and savoury flavours and tannins that aren’t too big. The incredible smoky, chocolate, briary and leathery flavours of mature examples of the better Hunter shirazes take some beating, anywhere. Because the sameness and soullessness of so many Australian chardonnays is driving people away from the grape, many are discovering in Hunter semillon a magnificent alternative. Bracingly taut and lemony, the delicate melon and lightly grassy characters of young Hunter semillon make the perfect antidote to a week’s diet of souped-up oaky chardonnay. It’s the Hunter’s typically wet late summer and autumn that has virtually dictated to its makers that semillon be picked early and greenish, fashioning an unwooded wine of vital acidity and considerably less alcohol. And as wines like Mount Pleasant’s affordable Elizabeth, Tyrrell’s Vat 1, Brokenwood’s Reserve and a host of others from makers like Rothbury Estate and Briar Ridge consistently illustrate, they’re amongst the finest examples of cellaring whites this country has to offer. While chardonnay is as ubiquitous to wine as cheddar is to cheese, the Hunter can and does make some very fine wine from this omnipresent grape. Fitting, really, since it was the chardonnay of Tyrrell’s that first brought this variety to popular attention. It’s hard to avoid the view that the absolute standard of chardonnays like those of Lake’s Folly, Tyrrell’s Vat 47, Briar Ridge, Brokenwood and Poole’s Rock has perhaps more to do with quality winemaking than it really should, but there’s no denying the quality of these wines. Hunter chardonnay is more generous, chewy and earlier to mature than that of the better cool-climate vineyards, and typically develops punchy, juicy flavours of melon, fig, tobacco and citrus fruit. Don’t ignore it. So, despite its difficult hot, dry climate and its tendency to bucket down with rain as its grapes are ripening, its poor leached soils and its chequered past, the Lower Hunter Valley defies the odds and remains a jewel, if perhaps an irregularly shaped one, in the crown of Australian wine. Its dry, undulating landscape of scrubby bush, tall eucalypts and brown paddocks, punctuated here and there by regimented rows of vines, lend it a charm and an honesty matched by few regions in this country. But remember this: if you’re visiting the region when they’re supposed to be picking grapes, don’t forget to pack your umbrella. Briar Ridge A small high-quality operation known for the fineness and elegance of its semillon and chardonnay wines, plus the faithfully traditional nature of its Shiraz. Briar Ridge’s premier wines are helped along by Hunter winemaking legend Karl Stockhausen, whose name appears on their labels. Brokenwood Founded by a group of Sydney-based wine enthusiasts in the 1970s, Brokenwood has retained its independence and integrity as a top-class maker of Hunter wines. Its Graveyard (shiraz) and Reserve Semillon are definitive regional cellaring styles, while the earlier-maturing ‘standard’ Semillon is a vibrant, refreshing alternative to chardonnay. Lake’s Folly Australia’s original ’boutique’ winery recently changed hands for a handsome sum, but Stephen Lake, winemaker for about the last two decades, has remained to continue this vineyard’s tradition of long-living and complex Chardonnay and totally unorthodox but frequently beguiling Cabernets. Lindemans Until the early 1970s Lindemans was synonymous with the very best the Hunter stood for, boasting a remarkable legacy of different semillons sold as ‘Chablis’, ‘White Burgundy’ and ‘Riesling’, plus a welter of incredibly flavoursome and enduring shiraz labelled as ‘Burgundy’. After two decades of rudderless management it is beginning to reclaim its past, with some fine Steven Vineyard shirazes and Semillons. Margan One of the new breed of energetic Hunter wine makers, Margan creates a very contemporary range of assertively oaked reds and refreshing whites. Mount Pleasant While its Elizabeth remains the benchmark entry-level mature white wine for anyone wanting to discover the benefits of bottle-age, this McWilliams label has revitalised its elegant, stylish Rosehill Shiraz and has improved its standard Philip Shiraz. Rare releases of Lovedale Semillon and Maurice O’Shea Shiraz are well worth finding. Poole’s Rock A specialist in clear, bright and uncluttered chardonnay wines with elegance and focus, Poole’s Rock is owned by Macquarie Bank chairman, David Clarke. Rothbury Estate The former focus of Len Evans’ winemaking aspirations is now rather languishing as part of Mildara Blass. Its Hunter Valley Semillon and Brokenback Shiraz remain excellent examples of what the Hunter is all about, but there’s an awful lot of rubbish now bottled under the Rothbury brand. Tower Estate Unashamedly a maker of choice combinations of regions and varieties from all over Australia, Tower Estate is a recent entrant to the premium wine market which has done its cause absolutely no harm with excellent Hunter Valley wines from semillon, verdelho, chardonnay and shiraz. Another Evans project, it’s a bite-sized version of what Rothbury was once all about. Tulloch Another of the region’s traditional labels struggling for recognition under a corporate umbrella, Tulloch is another of Southcorp’s Hunter investments. While it doesn’t offer much in the cheaper market, its Hector of Glen Elgin red still captures the essence of genuine Hunter shiraz. Tyrrell’s The quintessential Hunter winery, loaded with successful brands and quality vineyards, the best of which are chosen for the company’s enduring Vat series of wines. Tyrrell releases a brace of top semillons and shirazes, plus the region’s best chardonnay, the provocatively-named Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay. Tyrrell’s excellent performance over the last decade utterly belies the region’s inherent inconsistency.
