This will be a four-part series as follows:

1. Hunter Valley wineries
2. Places to stay in Hunter Valley
3. Places to eat in Hunter Valley
4. Hunter Valley events and activities

Recognize that these recommendations represent my opinion and may not be suitable for everyone.  Also know that I do not have any commercial relationship with these places nor have I asked their input or permission prior to writing these posts.  This series represents the opinions I have been sharing privately with friends, and I am now making them public.  I am certain there are great wineries, restaurants and places to stay that I will not be mentioning.  But in the end, I can only write what I know.

Overview of Hunter Valley wine region:

The Hunter Valley is two hours north of Sydney, Australia by car.  It was one of the first areas in which vines were planted in Australia.  James Busby, acclaimed father of the Australian wines industry, brought vine stock from France and Spain and planted them in the 1820s in the Hunter Valley.  The Hunter Valley produces only about 2% of Australian wines, but is internationally known for their excellent Shiraz and Semillon wines.  Few regions around the world grow these grapes better than they do in the Hunter Valley.  The Hunter also produce many excellent Chardonnay wines.  The Hunter Valley houses three (McWilliams, Tyrrell’s, and DeBertoli) of the twelve First Families of Wine, which are multi-generational privately held wineries.  This is testament to how seriously the Hunter Valley takes its wine and ensuring they continue to focus on quality.

You can find out more and keep up to date with upcoming events by following the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association.

Since a trip to the Hunter Valley features wine above all, the next post will be on some of my favorite Hunter Valley wineries.  Stay tuned!

Steve Shipley, author Wine Sense, out early 2014. Published by InkIT Publishing
© 2013.  Steve Shipley
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Twitter:  Steve Shipley @shipleyaust;   InkIT Publishing @inkitpub

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• Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 1
• Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 2
• Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3
• Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 4

I assume most wine makers try their best to get the most out of the grapes they are using to make wine.  But to give them a fighting chance, they need to use grapes from the regions most appropriate for growing that particular type of grape.  The different varieties of grapes have different characteristics which make them more (or less) suitable to be grown in particular regions.  Some grapes require a longer growing season than others and if in the wrong place, they will either end up not flavorful or ripe enough, or with too high an alcohol content for that grape.  Some grapes have thicker skins than others, and some reflect the influence of the type of soil and climate more (or less) than other grapes.

This mean that the certain grapes, year-in, year-out, will grow far better in certain regions than others.  You know I I love my Hunter Valley Semillon, Shiraz, and Chardonnay.  The region is perfect for growing these grapes, and there are some vineyards in the Hunter Valley (due to their specific location, if they are flat or on a hill, etc.) that yield still better results than other vineyards.  An example of this would be the Stevens vineyard for Shiraz and used by Tyrrells and De Iuliis.  Another is the Braemore vineyard for Semillon and from which Andrew Thomas makes his great Braemore Semillon.

But this also means that there are certain grapes not suited to the Hunter Valley and these include Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir!  If you want a good Cabernet Sauvignon, get one from the McLaren Vale or Margaret River.  If you want a good Pinot Noir, get one from Victoria, Tasmania or New Zealand.  Do not buy a Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir from the Hunter Valley!  Sure you say, but how about Lakes Folly Cabernet Sauvignon?  And I am sure some of their vintages are quite nice.  But why spend $70 bottle for this wine, when you can get an outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon from McLaren Vale or Margaret River for $20.  And if you do not know what you are doing nor follow the results of individual vintages for each region, you statistically will be far happier with any given vintage from McLaren Vale or Margaret River for a Cabernet Sauvignon than you will from the Hunter Valley.

I recently have had two bottles of Hunter Valley Pinot Noir.  One I thought was reasonable, that one being the Blueberry Hill Pinot Noir.  It was certainly decent, but not as good as most other Pinot Noirs I have had from Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand or certainly Burgundy.  The other one I opened last Saturday was the 2005/2009 blend Sandalyn Pinot Noir.  Frankly, I suffered through a couple of glasses of this on Saturday and what was left was down-right undrinkable today.  I bought nine bottles of this wine when taking a pasta cooking class at Sandalyn last year.  Frankly, drinking this wine now, I am not sure what possessed me to buy it.  I may have been enthused by the pasta making class and the fine meal we had afterwards, or caught up in the enthusiasm of the wine maker explaining to me how this was made in ‘a real Burgundy’ style.

Usually, I try to share and promote very positive wine-drinking and lifestyle experiences, but I also need to share my negative experiences to provide a balance and credibility to the wines and products I promote (which I do without any commercial ties BTW).  The 2005/2009 Sandalyn Pinot Noir was a good effort by the wine maker, but it is not a good wine and it is not going to last.  I have eight more bottles of this and will need to use it as cooking wine.  Or bring a few bottles to a BBQ where I know I can wait until a few hours into the BBQ and nobody will be able to discern the quality of this Pinot Noir after becoming well lubricated with beer and other mediocre wines!

Both the Blueberry Hill and the Sandalyn from the Hunter were mistakes to buy and I will make sure to follow my own advice and only buy grapes from the regions that are most suitable for growing them.  I was hoping to have the remaining Sandalyn with Bangers and Mash tonight, but will now maybe look at a Pinot Noir from Nuits – St George!

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In Part 1, we discussed why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.   In Part 2, we described where Australia’s prominent wine regions were located.

Discussing, even in simplest terms, each region, takes up some space, so I broke the wine regions up into the four large wine regions which I described in Part 3 (last  post):

• Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
• Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close-by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
• Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close-by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
• Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia

In Part 4 (this post), we will now describe what makes each smaller region so special and what grapes grow best in those regions:

• Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
• Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
• Tasmania
• Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

Rutherglen:

Rutherglen is one of the best wine regions in the world for Muscat.  They make a wide variety of great Muscats.  They also are known for their Durif wines.  Durif is a secondary grape, easy to confuse with other red grapes if you have not had it before.  They also make some spectacular Tokays, the Hungarian grape often used as a dessert wine.  See me blog entry on “What an Affogado!” for an overview on how special a Rutherglen Tokay can be!

I have not been there yet myself, but friends tell me it is a very nice region to visit with a lot of good food events and sightseeing outside of just tasting wine.

Rutherglen Top Wines:  Durif, Muscat, Tokay

Mudgee:

Mudgee is much higher up and inland than a lot of wine regions, making a perfect climate for cold weather grapes.  Robert Oakley has some of his best vineyards in Mudgee.  Mudgee vineyards also ship a lot of grapes to wineries around Australia.

Some very good Cabernet Sauvignons come from Mudgee and a number of organic wines are made in Mudgee.

But Mudgee is mostly known for its dessert wines and iced wines.  They have a lot of sweet late harvest and Botrytis Semillon dessert wines.

While 4 hours outside of Sydney, it can make a nice weekend getaway.

Mudgee Top Wines:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Botrytis Semillon and other Desert Wines

Tasmania:

Tasmania is a significant newer entrant to Australian wine regions.  With its cooler climate, it produces great Pinot Noir wines.

Tasmania Top Wines:  Pinot Noir

Riverina:

Riverina is not known for its great wines, but rather as the largest producer of wines in Australia.  About half of all Australian grapes come from Riverina, and many of them find there way into cask (box) wines.  Decent enough and very cheap, but not the type of thing I like to drink or write about.

Riverina Top Wines:  Cheap Cask Wines

This concludes the very short four-part overview of Australia’s wine regions.  I will be following up with several blogs on where and how to buy wines in Australia and also with blogs in more detail on each of the major wine regions, including recommendations on some of the best and best-valued wines on the market.

Stay tuned and keep drinking smartly and safely!

The post Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 4 appeared first on SAZ in the Cellar.

In Part 1, we discussed some of the reasons why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.   In Part 2, we described where Australia’s prominent wine regions were located.

Discussing, even in simplest terms, each region, takes up some space, so I am breaking the wine regions up into the four large wine regions which I describe in Part 3 (this post):

• Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
• Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close-by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
• Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close-by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
• Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia

In Part 4 (next post), we will then describe what makes each smaller region so special and what grapes grow best in those regions:

• Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
• Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
• Tasmania
• Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

Hunter Valley:

The Hunter Valley is divided into the Lower Hunter and the Upper Hunter.  However, the Upper Hunter only has four cellar doors remaining, and a number of vineyards that produce and sell grapes. The Lower Hunter is where the action is.  There are about 150 wineries in the Lower Hunter.  The Hunter Valley is close to the ocean, but not right on top of it, so it gets some good breezes, decent rainfall (some years far too much rain fall!), and has some great soil conditions.  The best known grapes in  the Hunter Valley are Semillon, Shiraz and Chardonnay.

Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

• Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
• Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
• “Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released

The Shiraz of The Hunter Valley tends to be more spicy than fruity often described with labels as “peppery”, “smokey”, “leathery”.  Hunter Shiraz’s also tend to contain slightly less alcohol and is more refined than the Shiraz of Barossa Valley, by comparison.  I would consider the Hunter Shiraz’ to compare with “old world” style Hermitage.

I have recently become a real fan of Hunter Valley Chardonnays and believe both the lighter crisper Chardonnays and the aged Chardonnays of the Hunter are as good as any in Australia now.

Hunter Valley Top Wines:  Semillon, Shiraz, Chardonnay

Barossa Valley:

The Barossa Valley is often labeled as Australia’s “Best Wine Region”, even though I am sure many wine producers from other regions would deny that claim!  However, the Barossa Valley has a lot going for it which justifies that label.  They produce great grapes, have a variety of micro-climates and regions, variety of elevations, and some of the best wine labels in Australia, including Penfolds, Henschke, and Grosset among many others.

The Barossa is known for big, robust, fruity, Shiraz, often high in alcohol.  It is also know for superb Rieslings, especially in the Clare and Eden Valleys.  As testimonial, I have about 6 Australian Rieslings in my cellar and they all come from around the Barossa Valley.

McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide is known for making superb Cabernet Sauvignons.  McLaren Vale is close to the sea and gets some nice breezes to help the grapes mature in a consistent manner.

There are a lot of other grapes that do well across the Barossa Valley, given its variety of micro-climates and great overall growing conditions.

Barossa Valley Top Wines:  Shiraz, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon

Yarra Valley:

The Yarra Valley makes some of Australia’s best sparkling wines.  They are also know for great Shiraz, as is the Heathcote region nearby.

But what I love most about the Yarra Valley and the surrounding areas of Geelong and the Mornington Penisula are the great Pinot Noir wines that come from this region.  The slightly cooler climate is perfect for growing the Pinot Noir grape.  Everyone is talking about New Zealand Pinot Noirs, but my favorites all come from Victoria.

Also, for pure enjoyment and if you only have a day to tour a wine country, the Yarra Valley is quicker to get to than The Hunter Valley or Margaret River from the closest big near-by city, so you can pack in more fun in a twelve hour day than with a number of the other regions, which almost demand two, if not three days.

Yarra Valley Top Wines:  Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Sparkling

Margaret River:

For pure elegance, I love the wines from the Margaret River.  Sea breezes and some of the best soil in Australia for growing wine exists in Margaret River.  It is often compared to Napa Valley and some great American wineries have purchased vineyards here.  In fact, this is the Australian wine region most noted for Zinfandel, a popular California grape.

Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays are the stand-out wines from Margaret River.  A number of premium brands such as Leeuwin Estate, Pierro and Moss Wood come from this region.  While one of the smaller regions compared to the three described above, Margaret River still “punches above the line” with so many premium labels.  Winery per winery, you will get more quality wineries from this region than from any other region.

Margaret River Top Wines:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc

Each region will be described in more detail, including recommendations of specific wineries and wines in subsequent posts.  But first, onto “Part 4 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Smaller Wine Regions.”

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In Part 1, we discussed why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.  (Surprisingly, every state in the US, including Alaska, now has a least one winery.  Having grown up in Minnesota, I find this surprising as there is nothing about the growing season in Minnesota or the conditions that would inspire me to drink a Minnesotan wine.  However, my parent’s friends own a winery in Canon Falls, Minnesota, so we will try it out on our next trip there and let you know!)

Below is a map of the Australian wine growing regions, even though it seems to be missing the recent growth in great Tasmanian wines.  Don’t let this mis-lead you:  there are some great Tasmanian wines, especially Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blancs.

As you can see, most Australian wine growing regions are located in the southern part of the country.  The northern part is just too hot (and often too dry) to be able to grow grapes of any quality.

For touring purposes and geographical simplicity, I categorize the major wine regions as follows:

• Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
• Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
• Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
• Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia
• Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
• Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
• Tasmania
• Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

I have tried to categorize the major regions around the major cities you would fly into and then drive out of to visit the wine regions.  As you can see from the map, there are a number of smaller and well-define regions also that are close by and associated with the better known region names.  But when it comes down to it, the four most prominent regions by name are Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley, Yarra Valley and Margaret River.  Rutherglen, Mudgee and Tasmania are worth visiting and growing in popularity, but less known (and more distant from a major city).  Riverina is a large rural area that produces a lot of grapes, but not great wines in general.

I have included a link to more detailed maps of the major wine regions for you to review.  Again, they fail to mention Tasmania, but an Internet search of ‘Tasmania and wine’ will provide you with ample information on Tasmania as a popular Australian wine region.

In Part 3, we will discuss the unique characteristics and grapes that each major region is known for.  Part 4 will similarly do this for the smaller wine regions.

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The four-part review comprises:

• Part 1 – Australia as a Prominent Wine Producing Country
• Part 2 – Australia’s Prominent Wine Regions
• Part 3 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions
• Part 4 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Smaller Wine Regions

Please understand that this is not a deeply researched review, but a more generalized review based on my slim knowledge of Australian wines and their history.  However, it should provide a overview for the uninitiated on Australian wines and their regions.

Once this series is complete, I will provide some more in-depth reviews of the various regions with recommendations on some great and great-valued wines from each region.

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