C yril Henschke took the extraordinary step in 1952 of citing the source vineyard on a wine label: Mount Edelstone Shiraz.

It was unheard of in Australia at the time, but Henschke realised that this 16ha site in South Australia’s Eden Valley produced Shiraz grapes that stood apart from its neighbours and deserved to be celebrated as a unique entity.

Mount Edelstone Shiraz, which celebrates 70 vintages in 2026, provides an important landmark for Australian wine by identifying site and terroir as a defining feature.

While other famous wines capture a distinctive Australian character through multi-regional or multi-variety blends – such as Penfolds’ Grange, Yalumba’s The Signature, Hardy’s Eileen Hardy and Wendouree’s wines – the action that Cyril Henschke took to highlight a single vineyard introduced a new, rarefied Australian fine wine story.

Within two years, Henschke had issued a second single-vineyard Shiraz – from the 4ha Hill of Grace Vineyard, planted in 1860 – which commanded a higher price because of its extremely limited production.

It declared a powerful statement that linked prestige to place. By the early 1980s, key vineyards that provided integral components to famous brands were being mentioned on the labels of a number of elite Australian wines – including Orlando’s St Hugo (from Coonawarra), Centenary Hill and Steingarten (both from Barossa), and St Hallett’s Old Block Shiraz (also from Barossa).

It placed great value on a league of century-old vineyards and their specific characteristics.

Singing their praises

By the 2010s, more Australian winemakers believed these deserved to be vinified and issued as single-site wines, rather than being labelled as ‘Reserve’ wines – a movement that underlined growing ambition to earn more plaudits on the world stage.

Talent and ideas matched this ambition, signalling the emergence of a ‘grand cru’ status in Australian wine – an important refocusing on specific sites that highlights the continuing maturity of Australian winemaking and wine marketing.

Recent historical tastings reveal the distinct personalities of superior locations – most notably Yangarra’s examination of all 15 vintages of its High Sands Grenache, vindicating the winery’s decision to reserve this extraordinary parcel, which defines the best of elite Australian Grenache.

Plenty of flagbearers are capturing specific aspects of the best old vineyards to produce wines of specific character.

Beyond the 10 sites listed here, Cullen’s 1971-planted Margaret River vineyard stands as a leading light of biodynamic viticulture. Brokenwood’s Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz provides a definitive Hunter Valley wine expression.

And also in Margaret River, the Vasse Felix home vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec produce the exemplary Tom Cullity.

Sites in the spotlight

More winemakers are being inspired to pursue single-site expressions of excellence, and to place renewed focus on historic sites in prime locations.

Toby Bekkers spent five years reviving a Clarendon vineyard (planted between 1842 and 1848) that had been the initial poster-site of South Australian wine, but since the 1970s had become derelict through neglect.

Now Bekkers Wines is producing single-site Clarendon Vineyard Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache of outstanding quality.

Sites are flourishing after careful research to maximise the potential of superior terroir. Shaw & Smith’s Lenswood Vineyard introduced intensive vine planting (about 4,800 vines per hectare) to naturally reduce crop load, resulting in exceptional Chardonnay.

In Western Australia’s Franklin River region, Swinney’s bush-vine Mourvedre is planted alongside Grenache and Shiraz on an ironstone gravel hilltop at the family’s Powderbark vineyard – and winemaker Rob Mann is producing three single-variety wines of extraordinary finesse.

Such celebrated outcomes don’t happen by accident. Meticulous, intelligent viticulture and vine health and soil restoration programs ensure these vines continue to produce extraordinary fruit that sits in idyllic balance – many in better shape now than ever.

The best is probably still ahead of us.

Henschke Mount Edelstone Vineyard

Eden Valley, South Australia

The 16ha Mount Edelstone Vineyard was an anomaly when pastoralist Ronald Angas planted only Shiraz vines on its rocky red loam soils in 1912, rather than follow the Barossa tradition of mixing several varieties.

His neighbour Cyril Henschke recognised the unique characteristics of this east-facing, 400m-high site when he started making wine from these grapes in the 1950s, and purchased the vineyard in 1974.

Now, viticulturist Prue Henschke nurtures the network of 1,300 old vines with biodynamic practices that have dramatically improved fruit quality from its 11 blocks – with Blocks G and H in the lower southeast portion of the vineyard being the winemakers’ favourite parcels.

From 1989, Prue introduced an upright trellis system to allow more even light onto ripening fruit.

‘This had an immediate effect on the wines,’ she says. ‘It amplified colour and brought great clarity and purity to the fruit flavours and subtle aromas. Vineyard attention led to sharper wine definition.’

This ensures great acid retention in the grapes and promotes an earthy savouriness to the palate, evident during Henschke’s February 2026 tasting event, hosted at the historic cellars in Keyneton, Eden Valley to examine key Mount Edelstone vintages between 1952 and 2022.

Highlights included the sprightly, lean 1958, sustained by the Mount Edelstone vineyard’s characteristic gentle tannins; and the recurring terroir hallmarks that showed off the vineyard’s twin personalities, with warmer vintages showing red earth and red spice as prominent features, and cooler vintages revealing lively sage and bay leaf herbal aromas over lush blackberry and black pepper.

Henschke Hill of Grace

Barossa, South Australia

Success for Mount Edelstone Shiraz inspired Cyril Henschke to elevate another single-site wine, this one produced from an even more precious vineyard resource – the small Hill of Grace Vineyard, with its gnarled Shiraz vines from the 1860s.

Planted on original rootstock, these fragile sentinels are among few surviving ancient relics to have avoided the impact of the destructive vine-root louse phylloxera – and they produce fruit of extraordinary intensity and unique character.

Dry-grown on clay-rich alluvial soils overlain by a layer of fine, sandy-silty loam, Shiraz from a 4ha portion of the Hill of Grace vineyard is treated with reverential care, benefiting from careful organic composting and mulching to ensure maximum microbial activity in the soil and optimal vine health.

Each portion of the vineyard is handpicked at different times around the full moon at Easter (significantly later than neighbouring Eden Valley and Barossa vineyards), yielding only about 2.5 tonnes of tiny berries per hectare, compared to 4 tonnes or so at Jim Barry’s Armagh vineyard, one of South Australia’s elite Shiraz sites.

It provides coiled power in a dark, inky wine that unfurls slowly over time in the cellar to scale monumental peaks.

These include the phenomenal 2010 and 2015 vintages, which best capture characteristic Hill of Grace signatures of dried sage, Chinese five spice and black pepper notes atop vibrant blackberry, dark plum and juicy cranberry.

Tolpuddle Vineyard

Coal River Valley, Tasmania

Soon after Tolpuddle Vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley was planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines in 1988, it was commanding respect as one of Australia’s elite cool-climate sites, yet Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw saw potential to do a whole lot more when they purchased the vineyard in 2011.

‘It has that special something,’ says Hill Smith, who is also one of the five Co-Chairs at the Decanter World Wine Awards.

‘Tolpuddle has very deliberate focus – but we felt it could be significantly better.’

The revitalisation programme saw a dam installed to help manage frost, ripping of the soil between vine rows to alleviate compaction of the silica-rich, stony ground, and new clones introduced within more intensive vine plantings to increase diversity and complexity of grape flavours and textures.

Through this focused attention to detail, Tolpuddle Chardonnay won immediate acclaim, but careful patience has also seen Pinot Noir flourish, as the influence of clonal diversity from new vines across the site has reached maturity.

‘Pinot Noir is capricious,’ says Shaw. ‘It reacts so sensitively to vintage and yield differences that it took time for Tolpuddle Pinot Noir to show site familiarity, but we have now arrived at a very strong place.’

Distinctive, prominent acidity comes as a consequence of the site’s typically very cold, very dry ripening season – an asset that gives these wines sharp flavour definition and extraordinary longevity.

Yangarra High Sands

McLaren Vale, South Australia

When Yangarra winemaker, the late Peter Fraser, identified as a result of the 2010 vintage that the specific terroir of this site – with Grenache bush vines planted in 1946 on a 1.7ha block of deep, ancient sand at Blewett Springs – produced a parcel of exceptional fruit with unusual delicacy and intensity, he boldly argued that it should be vinified separately and promoted as an elite, single-location Grenache expression.

No one else in Australia at that time had considered elevating Grenache to such a lofty pedestal, but Fraser’s astute observation set in place a movement that has rightly brought a league of superb McLaren Vale Grenache to international attention.

Yangarra High Sands remains the standard bearer for elite Australian Grenache, and a 15-vintage retrospective tasting demonstrated that its fragile beauty captures vintage variation with keen subtlety.

‘I always knew this block was very special. I had something that everyone else wanted, so I gave it my very best attention,’ said Fraser at the tasting.

The site provides fruit of exquisite purity, but minimal-intervention winemaking deserves praise for exercising poise and bringing every component into ideal balance – a talent amplified in more recent vintages, especially the magnificent 2024 High Sands Grenache.

It’s easy to be immediately seduced by its waft of wild herbs framed by fresh plum and wild raspberry, but it’s the lean muscle of a complex mid-palate that marries beauty with power, with its fine-boned frame carrying extraordinary persistence of pure flavours.

Alkina Estate Vineyard

Barossa, South Australia

When Chilean soil expert Dr Pedro Parra examined Alkina vineyard in the Barossa’s Greenock subregion, soon after Argentina’s Alejandro Bulgheroni bought the site in 2015, he confirmed its excellent pedigree – but also dug pits that identified a series of different soil outcrops within the 43ha vineyard.

These ‘polygons’ became the source of tiny fruit parcels that have been vinified separately and delicately in concrete vessels, with no oak influence, to accentuate their different character.

Polygon 1 Shiraz – sourced from a mere six rows of 70-year-old vines planted in granite-flecked schist and iron-rich clay over limestone – shows Barossa Shiraz in a dazzling fresh light, slender and nimble, yet supported by subtle, supple tannins and a lick of savoury minerality that guides a long palate line of rare finesse and purity.

Polygon 1 shows but one facet of Alkina’s studied Shiraz and Grenache output, as there are now 20 polygons defined within the vineyard’s Old Quarter – and more new sections are being identified to produce a suite of exemplary ‘polygon’ wines.

‘These are all significant micro-sites, all with significantly different geologies that introduce vastly different characteristics in the wine,’ explains Parra, ‘and it would be a crime if they were not identified individually and celebrated.’

Bastard Hill Vineyard

Yarra Valley, Victoria

Surrounded by dense temperate rainforest in the remote upper reaches of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, the 13ha Bastard Hill vineyard earned its harsh nickname from the workers who toiled in the especially difficult terrain.

Planted in the 1980s by the region’s leading cool-climate viticulturist, Ray Guerin, this was regarded as one of the great Chardonnay sites in Australia, being a source for Eileen Hardy Chardonnay.

The clearing is flanked by towering eucalyptus trees and giant tree ferns, and scales up from 300m to 400m above sea level.

With vines planted on gradients of up to 32%, riding farm machinery here is fraught with danger. Such difficulty and high labour expenses saw previous owner Accolade lose interest in maintaining such a gnarly site to the highest standards.

When Giant Steps Wine, owned by Jackson Family Wines, purchased the vineyard in August 2022, extensive vineyard restoration work commenced.

Winemaker Melanie Chester didn’t expect the neglected Bastard Hill site to respond immediately to viticultural attention and produce fruit of a standard befitting Giant Steps’ esteemed suite of single-vineyard wines.

But an exceptional 2023 Bastard Hill Chardonnay won immediate accolades, and the quality keeps improving.

A key factor is a rare soil type – rich red basalt that points back to the region’s volcanic activity of 500 million years ago – which produces fruit with an exciting concentration of flavours without sacrificing strident natural acidity.

Jim Barry Wines Florita Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

Racy, citrus-driven Clare Riesling is now a globally recognised style, built on the historical success of the famed Florita Vineyard.

Pioneer wine merchant Leo Buring bought land at Watervale in 1946 and called the site Florita (Spanish for ‘little flower’) because he initially planted Palomino and Pedro Ximénez grapes to make fino-style ‘sherry’.

He then planted Riesling vines in 1962 and his winemaker John Vickery created a benchmark style, winning 50 trophies and 400 gold medals over subsequent decades.

Jim Barry Wines purchased the 32ha Florita site from corporate owner Philip Morris in 1986, but although the Barrys immediately began making superior wines with this stellar resource, they couldn’t use the trademarked Florita name for another 18 years.

‘It was maddening that we couldn’t use the name for so long, because we wanted to shout from the rooftops that we had the most famous Riesling vineyard in Australia,’ says retired managing director Peter Barry.

Jim Barry Wines finally issued its own Florita Riesling in 2004. In this wine, the site’s shallow, loamy soils provide a delicate floral beauty coupled with a rich citrus line, firm acidity promoting sharp, clean flavours with unusual length and persistence.

It boasts the unusual dichotomy of being both pretty and fragile, yet resolute and sturdy – factors that amplify with age.

To highlight this, Jim Barry has been issuing a 10-year-old cellar release of Florita, with the recently reissued 2015 showing gorgeous, developed honeysuckle, toasted cashew and lime marmalade characteristics, without sacrificing the primary citrus zestiness that defines Watervale Riesling.

Grosset Polish Hill River Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

The single-minded pursuit of purity in Riesling expression is Jeffrey Grosset’s winemaking obsession, which led him to plant three different Riesling clones (two German and one rare local variety) on an 8ha vineyard in the stony, austere Polish Hill River region of Clare in 1996.

The site’s 500 million-year-old bedrock of blue slate produced a distinctive type of Riesling wrapped in dark, pensive flavour tones and spiky minerality – far removed from the neighbouring Watervale district’s lively lemon-lime characteristics.

Its austere personality reflects the struggle endured by such close-planted vines on tough soils, with each producing just two bottles of wine per vine.

‘I saw such particular attributes in the fruit from each site that I saw no point blending them together. I wanted people to see them side by side, so I just went ahead and bottled the Rieslings from both sub-regions separately,’ says Grosset.

This started a new, serious conversation about Riesling in Australia, which Grosset escalated as he honed more fine-chiselled flavour profiles after adopting organic viticulture principles, then achieving biodynamic certification in 2019.

Pursuit of this painstaking vineyard-care model has seen Grosset applauded as an early adopter of sustainability practices, but he simply points to the finished wine, and its extraordinary cellaring life, as his raison d’etre.

‘Quality over quantity,’ he says with an earnest stare, ‘is always the answer.’

Brokenwood Oakey Creek Vineyard

Hunter Valley, New South Wales

Semillon from the Hunter Valley carries unique characteristics that relate directly to site.

As Australia’s most northerly fine wine location, within a sub-tropical zone but also influenced by coastal breezes, the Hunter has produced Semillon for almost 200 years.

Its modern-day expressions of this grape variety combine seemingly disparate elements of bright, citrus-driven fruitiness with steely acidity that allows flavours to develop over time in bottle.

Semillon has thrived thanks to being planted in exactly the right locations – and Oakey Creek Vineyard, from which Brokenwood has sourced Semillon grapes since the early 1990s, ranks among the best.

In 2021 Brokenwood moved decisively to purchase the vineyard from the Drayton family, who planted it in 1982 on free-draining but fertile alluvial soils located close to the creek.

This vineyard is a primary source for Brokenwood’s elite ILR Reserve Semillon (first produced from the 1992 vintage, and released after six years of bottle age) – yet incredibly Brokenwood had never owned a Semillon vineyard.

‘We had always relied on local growers, so to take control of such an important vineyard gives us an opportunity to improve and invest in the vineyard’s future,’ explains chief winemaker Stuart Hordern.

He believes the importance of this vineyard will be more vigorously promoted, suggesting ILR will be labelled as a single-source wine, in addition to the Oakey Creek Semillon as a current-vintage expression.

‘It’s unmistakable where this wine comes from – and that’s rare.’

Giaconda Estate Vineyard

Beechworth, Victoria

The emergence of Giaconda, with its distinctive mineral-driven personality, proved pivotal in shaping the understanding that the best Australian Chardonnay should be defined by site rather than style.

When winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner left Brown Brothers Wines in 1981, he chose to plant his own vineyard on a tiny outcrop of 450 million-year-old granitic loam over clay and decomposed gravel near Beechworth in northern Victoria’s elevated sub-alpine region.

He had a specific goal – to produce rich but balanced Chardonnay in a powerful Burgundian style – but he needed to locate the right geological site. He found exactly what he wanted.

Chardonnay is planted on a relatively cool south-facing slope at more than 400m, providing a slow ripening period, enhanced flavour complexity and elevated natural acid levels.

It provides Giaconda Chardonnay with a robust frame, yet also unique poise and dignity.

Kinzbrunner remains a staunch advocate for a low-intervention winemaking style – pressing the grapes in a basket press, fermenting the must in oak, using no cultured yeasts, and not fining or filtering before bottling.

He believes this ensures the most accurate and authentic representation of his organically managed vineyard.

This supports a confident wine style that hasn’t changed with fashion, showing its personality with pride.

10 great Australian wines from 10 great Australian sites

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Most people who travel to Sydney hit the beaches for the most quintessential Aussie itinerary. Bondi is iconic, Byron is a must and Crescent Head is for surfers who want to catch a gnarly wave.

But jump in a car and head south from Sydney and you’ll find some of the most pristine beaches in the country, with more than 100km of coastline featuring protected coves, inlets and lagoons. The area known as the south coast of New South Wales is so untouched and miles away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney that there are even chances of spotting whales and dolphins.

On the wine trail

The small but mighty Shoalhaven Coast Wine Trail takes you from Kiama down to Bawley Point. The region is blessed with a unique maritime climate and cool coastal winds give Shoalhaven wines freshness, subtle elegance and complexity.

The main varietal here is Chambourcin, a versatile red French-American hybrid grape that’s highly resistant to the strong winds and fluctuating temperatures. However Chardonnay is also popular among winemakers, as is Cabernet Sauvignon, made in a lighter style thanks to the coastal climate.

‘What makes Shoalhaven special is that it’s still a relatively young wine region in New South Wales, and it’s largely made up of independent, family-run businesses,’ says Libby Cupitt, second generation winemaker at Cupitt’s Estate. ‘There’s a real sense that everyone is shaping it in their own way, often tied closely to the lifestyle here. Here you can finish work and then head for a swim, a surf or a snorkel,’ she adds.

Heading inland

I stuck to the coastline during my south coast wine tour, but if you go further inland, you will hit Yarrawa which overlooks Kangaroo Valley; Lyrebird (between Kangaroo Valley and Nowra); and Cambewarra Estate at the foothills of the Cambewarra Mountain.

Husband-and-wife Mark and Sue Foster founded the intimate Yarrawa winery in 1998. Chardonnay aged in new French oak barrels and a sustainably grown, peppery Chambourcin are on offer here. But it’s hard to beat the fresh and velvety Sierra Rosé, also made from Chambourcin.

Directly on the Princes Freeway is Silos Estate. Since 1984, the small vineyard just outside of Berry has been a destination for art-lovers, families and gourmets. The estate has sculpture by Elyssa Sykes-Smith, alpacas for kids to cuddle and a fine-dining restaurant. Much like all the boutique wineries in the region, sustainability is high on the agenda here.

The estate has been self-sustaining since 2010 with all the energy for the winery, accommodation and cellar door generated from solar or wind power. Alongside the award-winning Chardonnay and dessert wines such as Shiraz-based Sticky Wicket, you’ll also find charging stations for vehicles.

Coastal wineries

Off the Princes Highway and close to the beach on Shoalhaven Heads, you’ll find three more wineries worth a visit: Two Figs Vineyard, Coolangatta Estate and Mountain Ridge. All estates offer a tempting array of wines to taste from Chamboucin to Semillon – and there’s even a gin at Two Figs.

But if there’s just one winery to visit in the region, head further south to Cupitt’s Estate in Ulladulla. Originally a working dairy farm, the estate is now owned by entrepreneurs Rosie and Griff Cupitt, who wanted to bring a European flavour to the south coast of New South Wales. So rather than your regular Semillon and Shiraz, the Cupitts make wines with Italian varietals. Single-vineyard expressions include Vermentino, Arneis, Fiano and Montepulciano – all sourced from growers in the cool-climate Hilltops region of southern New South Wales.

‘We’ve spent a lot of time travelling through Italy and what has stayed with us is how much the Italians prioritise joy, food, friends and family. That really resonates with how we live here,’ says Rosie. ‘Varieties like Fiano, Vermentino, Arneis and Sangiovese just fit our coastal lifestyle. They also make sense from a growing perspective. We need varieties that can handle dry conditions, but also cope when we get high rainfall. Mediterranean grapes are well suited to that, which feels important as the climate continues to shift.’

Where to stay

Bangalay Villas

Sitting on Seven Miles Beach, there are 16 private luxury suites with kitchenettes and a large lounge area overlooking a private golf course.

Bannisters By The Sea

A beachside resort perched high on a hill with panoramas of the sea. Treat yourself to a stay in the penthouse, styled by Aussie designer, Collette Dinnigan.

The Oaks Ranch

A bit of Palm Springs in the heart of country New South Wales – why not? A delightful family-run boutique retreat in Mossy Point with a private golf course and top-notch restaurant.

Where to eat

Arlo

Enjoy kangaroos hopping in the countryside as you relax in the award-winning restaurant at The Oaks Ranch, sipping local wines and eating wagyu beef sourced from nearby farms.

Cupitt’s Estate Dining Room

The seasonal farm-to-table menu pays homage to local producers with a slight European twist.

Rick Stein at Bannisters

A local seafood-focused restaurant by celebrity chef Rick Stein, with dishes such as stir-fried Jervis Bay mussels and grilled Ulladulla snapper.

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Sun-ripened Shiraz. Bold Cabernets. Australia’s modern wine identity has for long been defined by warmth and power.

Yet, in the vicinity of the nation’s capital, a very different story has been unfolding, one shaped by altitude, restraint and terroir expression.

A 35-minute drive from the city leads to the Canberra District wine region, where vineyards sit between 500m and 850m above sea level.

Here, warm days are followed by cool nights, allowing wines to develop slowly, retaining fragrance, acidity, and finesse.

Over the last six decades, the region has quietly become one of Australia’s most compelling cool-climate frontiers.

Medium-bodied Shiraz with spice and restraint, piercing Rieslings with longevity, and an increasingly convincing suite of Italian varieties are redefining what Australian wine can be.

A scientific beginning

Unlike many Australian wine regions, Canberra’s viticultural roots lie not in farming heritage but in scientific curiosity.

The story began in the late 1960s at Clonakilla, when Dr John Kirk, an Irish biochemist recruited by Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), arrived in Canberra.

He questioned why a wine industry did not exist in a climate that closely resembled parts of Europe.

In 1971, he purchased a 17ha former wool farm near Murrumbateman and planted vines, undeterred by scepticism that Australian wine belonged firmly in warmer regions.

His son, Tim Kirk, recalls arriving in Australia by sea in 1968, aged nine, and growing up among the vines.

The first commercial vintage – for both the winery and the region – was in 1976. It consisted of a Riesling and Cabernet-Shiraz blend, but the early years were modest.

Growth and development

The first vintage of Clonakilla’s iconic Shiraz-Viognier – now a benchmark for Australian elegance and known for its aromatic lift, spice and silky texture – was made by Tim in 1992.

What began as an experimental bottling in tiny amounts (in 1994 only three barrels were produced) has grown significantly.

Today the winery’s total annual production is around 20,000 cases and exports span Asia, the US, the UK and Scandinavia.

As Clonakilla was getting established, other scientists were also experimenting. In 1973, CSIRO researcher Ken Helm planted vines east of Murrumbateman, followed in 1974 by Dr Edgar Reik, who established Lake George Winery.

Though they did not initially know one another, these early pioneers collectively laid the foundations for a region built on experimentation, restraint and quality.

Today, the Canberra District comprises over 140 vineyards and 50 wineries. Small by national standards, arguably its influence far exceeds its size.

High and dry

Canberra’s elevation plays a defining role in its wines, slowing ripening and preserving acidity.

Meanwhile diurnal temperature shifts, often reaching 20°C during the growing season, allow grapes to rest overnight, locking in aromatics and freshness.

Fergus McGhie, sales and marketing manager at Mount Majura Vineyard and president of the Canberra District Wine Industry Association, notes that the region’s stylistic direction was evident from the beginning.

‘Very early, local makers knew that our fruit was more delicate in character, more aromatic and blessed by higher natural acidity,’ he says. ‘The wines are better suited to subtle French oak influences rather than bolder American oak treatments.’

Soils across the region vary considerably but all contribute to this pared back character. The presence of granite, red clay loams, ironstone and limestone naturally restrain vine vigour.

Emma Shaw, general manager of Collector Wines, describes these as ‘lean, hungry soils’, conditions that bring vines into balance without excessive intervention.

Canberra’s climate is also notably dry, with average annual rainfall of around 600mm, spread evenly across the seasons.

According to McGhie, this results in, ‘lower disease pressure and reduces the need for chemical intervention in the vineyard, allowing growers to focus on fruit purity and site expression’.

Shiraz with restraint

Shiraz has emerged as Canberra’s most visible calling card, though its expression is markedly different from warmer Australian regions.

‘The climate and our natural acidity, as well as fine tannin and variation across subregions, means that our Shiraz winemaking can be almost Burgundian,’ says Shaw. ‘We’re producing elegant, medium-bodied wines of restrained power.’

This style has found increasing recognition. Over the past three years, Canberra Shiraz has claimed top honours at Australia’s major wine shows, culminating in the Four Winds Vineyard Shiraz 2023 winning the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in 2024. A remarkable achievement for a region producing a fraction of the volume of Australia’s major wine areas.

For McGhie, the region’s signature lies in its freshness.

‘The typicity of the region is very pretty reds and perfumed whites with a lovely freshness of fruit character’ he says.

The quiet constant: Riesling

If Shiraz is Canberra’s calling card, Riesling is its quiet constant. At Helm Wines, Riesling has been central to expressing the region’s identity since the 1970s.

Sourced from a secluded valley east of Murrumbateman, dominated by Mt Ramsay at 730m, Helm’s vineyards highlight how Canberra’s climate preserves citrus purity, balance and longevity.

The combination of warm days and cool nights allows Riesling grapes to retain low pH and crisp acidity, while developing flavour slowly.

That acidity is sharpened by diurnal change and soils of granite and clay adding structure.

Helm’s wines have consistently received high critical acclaim, reinforcing the variety’s natural affinity with the region.

Italian and Spanish flavour

Alongside Shiraz and Riesling, Canberra is also known for its success with Italian varieties, particularly Sangiovese.

At Four Winds Vineyard, CEO Sarah Collingwood explains that the focus has always been on working with varieties that suit the region.

‘Rather than fighting that cool-climate identity, we’ve built our business around it,’ she says. ‘Shiraz with pepper and spice, Riesling with fresh citrus structure, and Sangiovese that shows what this delicious lighter-bodied red grape can do.’

McGhie points to growing quality across the district in both Sangiovese and Spanish grape Tempranillo.

He also notes early promise in white grapes: Italy’s Fiano and Spain’s Albariño.

‘It’s early days, but Albariño could become another signature white for the region,’ he says.

Cellar doors, place and discovery

Despite its proximity to Australia’s capital, Canberra’s wine region still surprises many visitors.

‘People are either surprised that Canberra has a wine region, or that we’re producing such good quality,’ says Shaw, who also runs Canberra Cellar Door, a hub dedicated to showcasing wines from across the district. ‘It’s tasting the wines that convinces them.’

Hospitality plays a central role in communicating terroir. At Four Winds, Collingwood has deliberately embraced simplicity.

‘Guests sit overlooking the vineyard, enjoy wood-fired pizza and wine, and connect directly with the place,’ she says. ‘No unnecessary complexity; just the essentials.’

Meanwhile at Mount Majura Vineyard, guided tastings explore clones, soils and trial plantings, reinforcing the region’s scientific roots and ongoing curiosity.

Looking forward

The Canberra District’s greatest strength, its small scale, is also its biggest challenge.

‘Our greatest opportunity is the quality of wine we’re producing,’ Collingwood says.

‘But being small is also our challenge. Limited volumes restrict our voice nationally and internationally.’

Shaw echoes this tension, noting broader pressures from climate change and declining global wine consumption.

But she remains optimistic. ‘Because we’re producing cool-climate, elegant wines, and artisan wines with a story and culture behind them, I see interest in our wine region growing all the time.’

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The dry white Semillon of Hunter Valley is one of the wine world’s greatest secrets. It has a devoted following among those consumers who have discovered it and it’s revered by the winemakers of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales; yet it goes curiously uncelebrated in much of the wider world.

The Hunter Valley – a two-hour drive north of Sydney – is Australia’s oldest continuing wine region, becoming established in the 1830s. Semillon is believed to have been grown there from the start, although it wasn’t always given its correct name, its wines being labelled variously as Shepherd’s Riesling, Rhine Gold and Chablis, among others.

As with Chenin Blanc in the middle Loire, Pinot Noir in Burgundy and Nebbiolo in Piedmont’s Langhe, there are few places on the globe where Semillon excels as it does in the Hunter.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 exquisite Semillons from the Hunter Valley

Old vines on poor soils

Key to its success are the poor, white, sandy soils of ancient river beds where the best Semillon grapes are grown. These soils are low in fertility and well drained. Many vines are more than a century old and unirrigated, and their roots go deep.

In particular, the area along the rather ill-named Hermitage Road in Pokolbin is where Tyrrell’s, Keith Tulloch, Thomas Wines, Pepper Tree and others source their most prized grapes.

Fruit from vineyards such as Braemore, Casuarina, Trevena, Tyrrells’ HVD and Keith Tulloch’s Field of Mars is highly valued by winemakers and keenly sought where available to buy. This area is what Keith Tulloch refers to as Pokolbin’s ‘grand cru strip’ of the Hunter Valley.

The Hunter isn’t a cool-climate region – its relatively northern latitude and low altitude (roughly 50m-250m) mitigate against that – but its proximity to the sea (the Pacific ocean is less than 40km from Cessnock) and extensive cloud cover moderate the climate.

On the other hand, it can be quite wet during the ripening season, so the fact that Semillon is harvested early works in its favour.

Young and old

Hunter Semillon at its best isn’t grassy or herbaceous when young, but scented with lemon juice, lemongrass and fragrant herbs. It’s delicate, restrained and refreshing, with appetising acidity and low alcohol: normally between 10% and 12%.

Fermented dry and not usually wood-aged, it makes a stimulating aperitif wine and also goes well with a wide range of delicate foods, such as crustaceans and other shellfish, finned fish, salads and vegetable dishes.

It ages superbly, for up to 20 years or more, and the more committed producers release semi-mature Semillon (usually at about five years old) annually, alongside their most recent vintages.

As Semillon ages, the colour deepens and the bouquet becomes more complex: toasty and honeyed, sometimes with buttery traces and often veering into the roasted hazelnuts more commonly seen in aged Chardonnay. The palate also puts on weight and richness, but without losing its essential finesse and appetising qualities.

Tyrrell’s, Mount Pleasant and Brokenwood are the three top-level producers, closely followed by Keith Tulloch, McGuigan, Silkman, First Creek, Vinden, Gundog, Briar Ridge, Pepper Tree, Margan and Audrey Wilkinson, all of whom are right up there.

Mount Eyre, Leogate, De Iuliis, Tamburlaine, David Hook, Usher Tinkler, Saddler’s Creek, Scarborough, Tintilla, Hart & Hunter and Allandale also produce fine examples.

Sadly, many of those bottles can only be found in Australia. Even finding enough wineries that export Semillon to the UK for this report was difficult. While other markets, such as Scandinavia, do import Hunter Semillon, it remains a niche variety.

Let’s hope that more people will discover its pleasures.

Huon Hooke’s pick of Hunter Valley Semillon:

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Outsiders might scoff at the idea that Australia can produce cool-climate wines, as the country is famous for sun, surf and sand. A warm, temperate climate, with regular droughts, heatwaves and devastating wildfires, is the all-pervading impression.

That’s all true, but this massive continent supports a huge range of climatic regions. And as climate change increases its influence, cooler places to grow wine grapes will be increasingly valued.

Scroll down for Huon Hooke’s 15 wine picks from Orange and Hilltops

There are two ways to find a cool viticultural climate: go south or go up. Orange and Hilltops are two regions in the eastern state of New South Wales that achieve their coolness with altitude.

Orange is the only Australian wine region defined by altitude, with vineyards at ‘lows’ of 600 metres (2,000ft), up to 1,150m in the very highest reaches. Hilltops is a smaller region in planted area (600 hectares compared to 1,075ha in Orange) and much smaller in producer numbers (nine compared to 37), and the range of vineyard altitudes is lower, at 380m to 600m.

As well as their own producers, both regions also provide grapes for outsiders, as cool-climate varieties are sought by wineries based in warmer regions, such as the Hunter Valley.

Orange at a glance

Vineyard altitude: 600m-1,150m

Mean temperature of the warmest month: 21.6°C in January

Area under vine: 1,075ha

Red varieties: 60% of plantings

Producers: 37

Source: Wine Australia

Altitude is what they have in common, but for practical reasons they are in different GI (appellation) zones. Hilltops is officially part of the Southern New South Wales zone along with Canberra District, Tumbarumba and Gundagai, whereas Orange is in the Central Ranges zone along with Cowra and Mudgee.

The varietal offering is likewise slightly different in each: Orange specialises in varieties that suit unequivocally cool sites: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (for both still and sparkling wines), Riesling, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and, in the lower altitudes, Shiraz, Merlot and even Cabernet Sauvignon. As in most Australian regions, there has been a mini-boom in Italian and Iberian varieties of late, including Sangiovese, Barbera, Tempranillo, Montepulciano, Vermentino, Arneis and even Sagrantino.

Hilltops at a glance

Vineyard altitude: 380m-600m

Mean temperature of the warmest month: 23.5°C in January

Area under vines: 600ha

Red varieties: 80% of plantings

Producers: 9 (with Freeman the sole operating winery)

Source: Wine Australia

Hilltops has made its name with full-bodied reds from Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, and has branched out into Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Fiano, Barbera, Zinfandel, Montepulciano and the Veronese twins of Corvina and Rondinella.

Both regions’ modern wine industries were pioneered in a similar time-frame. Orange’s first commercial vineyard came in 1980, Hilltops’ in 1969 – each inspired by the nationwide trend towards cooler climates and away from the traditional hot climates – which were mostly selected because of their proximity to major cities, and the concurrent fashion for fortified wines and big reds.

Orange: 40 years of growth

The oldest wineries in the Orange region that are still going today were Bloodwood and Cargo Road – both founded in 1983 – and Canobolas-Smith (now Canobolas Wines), founded in 1986. In 1989, Philip Shaw, then chief winemaker at Rosemount in the Hunter Valley, saw the region’s potential and began planting his Koomooloo vineyard.

Rosemount produced wines from these vines before they came to full maturity and Shaw eventually left corporate life to devote himself to Orange. His sons Daniel and Damian manage the business today while Philip, now in his 70s, has set up a micro-winery called Hoosegg, which makes tiny amounts of Chardonnay and full-bodied reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz) from a select part of Koomooloo. The veteran winemaker says this is his last big shot at great wine and no expense is spared. The results have been outstanding.

So far there have been no big companies in Orange, which is a two-edged sword. While Orange could benefit from the profile and marketing clout a corporate could bring, on the other hand it enjoys the warm and fuzzy image of family-owned- and-run boutique wineries. The wines are mostly very small in volume, although Tamburlaine (originally Hunter based) has emerged in recent years as Australia’s biggest organic vineyard owner after buying the established Cabonne vineyards near Orange.

While several Orange winemakers are hedging their bets by planting Mediterranean varieties, at least one is going the other way. Drew Tuckwell, winemaker at Printhie, which recently opened a modern cellar door and restaurant, high on Mt Canobolas, explained: ‘We are focusing on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling, as well as single-vineyard bottlings. We’re very encouraged as our 2015 Swift Vintage was named best sparkling at the Adelaide Wine Show in 2023, beating House of Arras.’

Cool climate is also a two-edged sword, and Shaw has not been able to make any Hoosegg wines for the past five years (he includes the upcoming 2024) because of hail and bad weather at flowering. Others in the district have been hit hard by frost as well, but he says Koomooloo has never been frosted, thanks to good cold-air drainage.

‘Hail is an intermittent thing, it’s just down to luck. In 30 years we never had hail, then three in a row,’ Shaw says. But he’s not discouraged. ‘It happens in Burgundy too, you know.’

Orange: the future is bright

Excitingly, a new generation of winemakers is accumulating in the region. Jeff Byrne moved from the Hunter to Orange to start Byrne Farm, while Will Rikard-Bell made the same move several years earlier and set up Rikard Wines, as well as being the contract winemaker for several other labels, notably Colmar Estate.

Meanwhile, new owners have moved in to Montoro Wines, and Nadja Wallington and her partner Steve Mobbs, both from winemaking families, set up ChaLou, buying an established Orange vineyard and taking grapes from the Wallington family’s vineyard at Cowra.

In 2022, former Stonier winemaker Jonathan Mattick bought Canobolas-Smith and renamed it Canobolas Wines. A mentee of Canobolas-Smith founder Murray Smith is Charlie Svenson, a microbiologist who, with his wife Loretta, established their own winery on the high slopes of Mt Canobolas, and named it De Salis. Their sons are also now involved. Generational changes continue at Colmar Estate too, where owners Bill and Jane Shrapnel recently announced they would gradually hand over their vineyard to their daughter and son-in-law.

If attracting skilled and smart younger people to the region is the way to go, the future of the Orange wine scene looks bright. In addition, the city of Orange continues to acquire fine eating places and accommodation. The city is growing and prosperous, and the region appears to have gained critical mass.

Hilltops: land of wine and cherries

Hilltops has a different set of assets to Orange. With few wineries and based on the much smaller town of Young, the cherry-growing capital of New South Wales, Hilltops nevertheless is doing similarly good things.

The first major vineyard of the modern era was Barwang, founded by Peter Robertson in 1969. In 1988, the property was purchased, expanded and the brand developed by McWilliam’s as ‘Hilltops Barwang’. Sadly this venerable family company went into liquidation in 2021. But the good news is the Barwang property was quickly bought by a local family, the Bowmans, who intend to revive the brand.

Today the big names in the region are Freeman and Moppity. Professor Brian Freeman was head of the school of wine science at Australia’s Charles Sturt University for 10 years and trained many of the country’s current winemakers and viticulturists.

With help from his daughter Marcelle, Freeman cultivates 200ha of vineyards which supply the Freeman brand as well about 30 other wineries from an eclectic array of 27 grape varieties. His own passion is air-dried grape styles, loosely modelled on Italy’s Amarone della Valpolicella. His highly successful air-dried Corvina-Rondinella, named ‘Secco’, is almost unique in Australia.

Freeman’s current tally of 27 varieties is a good hedge against weather events as well as global warming. ‘But it’s changing: Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are out; Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Grenache and Fiano are in,’ he declares.

‘We don’t talk about climate change here,’ he continues. ‘The early varieties are getting earlier and the later varieties are getting later! This year we had Corvina in May at 10° Baumé [a potential alcohol of 10%], 2.8pH and 13 grams per litre of acidity. Those would be good numbers for Hunter Valley Semillon, but not Corvina. We didn’t pick it.’

In early November he was licking his wounds after suffering the worst frost he’d ever experienced. With access to irrigation water an issue in Hilltops, he is presently planting Grenache, which will be dry-grown when established.

Hilltops is largely a red-grape region, but Freeman also grows a lot of Pinot Grigio and Prosecco – both popular wines that have a ready market. In a sense these are the bread-and-butter varieties that enable the passionate winemakers to focus on the more serious wines, which happen to be mostly reds.

Jason and Alecia Brown of Moppity bought a small run-down vineyard many years ago and took the wine game to a much higher level, vastly increasing the plantings and improving the wines. Moppity Cabernets and Shirazes under several labels have been extremely successful in wine shows.

The Browns then bought a Tumbarumba vineyard which they renamed Coppabella to produce cooler-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Later still, they bought a vineyard in the Canberra District.

Rounding out the larger Hilltops operators, Grove Estate and Ballinaclash are two properties with their own quality wines (and cherries) and a family connection. Grove Estate is owned by Brian and Suellen Mullany; Ballinaclash by Brian’s brother Peter Mullany and his wife Cath.

Raising the Hilltops profile

The majority of fruit grown in Hilltops isn’t vinified there. A number of winemakers based outside Hilltops – both established names and up-and-comers – buy grapes from the growers, including high-profile Canberra District winery Clonakilla, whose Hilltops Shiraz is considerably less expensive than its flagship Shiraz-Viognier.

Hunter Valley-based Gundog Estate currently fields three very smart Hilltops Shirazes. Others include: Hungerford Hill, Nick Spencer, McWilliam’s and its new owner Calabria Family Wines, Briar Ridge, Collector, Linear, De Iuliis, Sapling Yard, Lark Hill, Gilbert, Mercer, Ravensworth, Little Wine Co, Charteris, R Paulazzo, Tertini and Centennial Vineyards.

With so few wineries in the region – Freeman’s is the only one currently in operation – an informal group named ‘Hilltops Wine Associates’ has been formed to help give the region’s profile a boost. The 12 names include: Tamburlaine, Allandale, Corang Estate, Cassegrain, Boydell’s, Charles Sturt University, Twin Bridges, Murrumbateman Winery and some of the above.

Hilltops and Orange; two small, budding regions with complementary rather than comparable attributes, but both making common use of altitude in their effort to produce finer, more exciting Australian wines.

Orange and Hilltops: 15 exciting wines to try

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The Hunter Valley vineyard property has been put up for sale as industry veteran David Hook and his partner, Sherry Watt, seek to cut down on their workload, a listing statement said.

The news comes around one month after well-known name Tulloch Wines was reportedly put up for sale in the Australian region, north of Sydney.

Hunter Valley is ‘undergoing significant generational change’, according to a press statement on the sale of David Hook Wines, which has been producing wines for more than 35 years.

‘It’s always with mixed emotions that these properties come to market after so much hard work, but equally it represents a very exciting opportunity for the next generation,’ said Adam Morris, listing agent for David Hook Wines and affiliated to Christie’s International Real Estate.

Lying on 103 hectares of land, David Hook Wines includes two residences, a winery and an eight-hectare ‘ultra-premium’ vineyard first planted in 1982.

Grape varieties include the classic trio of Semillon, Chardonnay and Shiraz, but also 0.5ha each of Pinot Grigio and Barbera that were planted in 2018.

A further 50 hectares have been ‘earmarked’ for future planting, and regulatory approval has been obtained for a cellar door to welcome visitors and wine tasters, according to the listing.

An asking price has not been disclosed, however. The vendors ‘wish the price guide to remain confidential and only disclosed to qualified buyers,’ said Morris, who is a specialist vineyard broker in the area.

While some wine properties around the world may be sold more as ‘hobby’ vineyard estates, this listing may present an opportunity for buyers seeking a more commercial or substantial operation.

‘The focus [at David Hook Wines] has been squarely on incremental improvement in the vineyard, making excellent wines and selling through an established distribution network,’ said Morris.

For existing wine industry players, this listing could be a ‘highly lucrative turnkey operation which will comfortably fund itself under current interest rate settings’, he added.

Speaking to Decanter via email, Morris said that there were a range of Hunter Valley wine properties, potentially presenting different options for prospective buyers should any come up for sale.

These include larger family-held estates but also hotel and hospitality businesses that produce wine as part of their operations, as well as vineyard estates more at the ‘lifestyle’ end of the market – the latter potentially attracting buyers looking to move up from Sydney.

See more wine estates in our property section

To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2019, Wakefield Estate – Taylors in Australia and New Zealand – has released a new wine that the company boldly claims is its best wine yet. Named Wakefield The Legacy, it’s quite a departure in stylistic terms: suavely textured, elegant, with great length, complexity and fine-grained tannins.

Scroll down for Huon Hooke’s pick of the best from Wakefield Estate

Established in 1969 in South Australia’s sunny Clare Valley, Wakefield is still about 50% estate-based, has always been a proudly family-owned business and is a founding member of Australia’s First Families of Wine group. It has always placed strong emphasis on show results and has had impressive success in competitions both at home and abroad. Its critics say that its red wines are bold, oaky and obvious, and that this is the kind of red wine that tends to get results in shows. But it’s clear that its followers love that style.It’s an unusual company in that it markets its wines under two different brand names simultaneously. The company began as Taylors Wines in the early 1970s, and it wasn’t until it began to get serious about exporting that a problem arose. Says managing director and third-generation family member Mitchell Taylor: ‘This happened quite early on in our export journey, in 1988, when Taylor Fladgate [Taylor’s Port in the UK] challenged us when we marketed our wines in the UK.’

As well as Taylor’s Port, there was also Taylor California Cellars in the US. So as a result, all Taylors wines in the UK, Europe and North America have since been sold under the name Wakefield, while Taylors Wines is used in Australia and New Zealand. In Asia, the family is currently switching over to Wakefield Taylor Family Wines. And it’s working on a global co-existence deal with Taylor Fladgate. ‘The curse of such a common surname!’ adds Taylor.

King of Cabernet

Wakefield’s first plantings were Cabernet Sauvignon and it still sees itself as primarily a Cabernet company. ‘Cabernet was the grape variety we started with, and Cabernet is still the highest value wine being sold out of Australia,’ says Taylor. ‘And it’s still the highest value wine in the world market. Just think of Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Sassicaia, the Penfolds Special Bin wines…’

The company is very competition-focused, and enters its wines into a multitude of shows in Australia, Asia and Europe. A tasting with chief winemaker Adam Eggins and Mitchell Taylor is punctuated with comments about medals won and accolades achieved. They’re especially proud of such distinctions as The Visionary Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 having won gold at the Concours International des Cabernets in France in 2016.

Wakefield boasts that its wines are ‘the world’s most-awarded’ and its claim to be ‘the world’s number one winery’ is based on a 2017 ranking by the World Association of Wine Writers and Journalists, which looked at the performance of more than 50,000 producers in global wine competitions.

Wakefield / Taylors at a glance

Established 1969 Vineyard area 600ha Production 9.6m bottles

Main red varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz

Main white varieties Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc

Chief winemaker Adam Eggins

Exports All major markets

Wakefield’s green credentials

Wakefield is 100% family-owned by the founding Taylor family, and is very much estate-based in the dry, warm Clare Valley – factors that no doubt have helped the family in its quest to become as environmentally sensitive as possible. Committed to sustainable practices, it claims to take all available measures to prevent or eliminate as far as possible the production of waste or pollution. A key part of the strategy is the adoption of an environmental management system (EMS) and a strategic plan.

The company received ISO certification for its EMS in 2009; behind this is a risk management program providing a framework for ongoing improvements. It addresses the core risks of water consumption, waste, noise and air emissions, energy, storage and soil management. The company also began reducing its carbon footprint in 2008. As part of its emissions reduction plan, it has been buying carbon offsets since 2009 with the result that the Eighty Acres range of wines is carbon neutral. Thousands of trees have been planted as a result.

In addition, Wakefield was among the first wineries in Australia to introduce innovative Lean+Green™ lightweight glass, first into the Eighty Acres range, and later the Promised Land and Taylors Estate/Wakefield Estate ranges. The bottle is almost 40% lighter than the original one used for Eighty Acres and represents the equivalent of a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions per bottle.

The company’s bread-and-butter Shiraz pulled off a giant-killer act at the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge in 2015, winning not only best value wine, but best wine overall. ‘The 2014 seemed to win gold wherever we showed it,’ says Taylor. ‘It was a cracker vintage across the range.’ No surprise, then, that it was the 2014 vintage that was chosen for the Wakefield The Legacy Cabernet blend.

The best yet

Wakefield The Legacy is clearly, as claimed, the best wine the company has yet produced. Based on Cabernet Sauvignon, it includes minor proportions of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Coonawarra. Only 1,080 bottles were produced and it was released on 16 April 2019, the exact date of the company’s 50th anniversary. The barrels used were extra special, as Eggins explains: ‘When [Cognacbased cooperage] Vicard celebrated its 80th anniversary, Jean-Louis Vicard sent us a special anniversary barrique, named Jean Vicard after his father. We liked it so much we ordered nine more. Jean-Louis said: “You have to promise to keep the wine in the barrels for 36 months, otherwise I won’t sell them to you.” This was unusual, but we agreed. We’ve been buying them every year since.’

The barrels are light-toast and made from very fine-grain, 36-month-matured oak. The wine itself is 97% Clare Valley and comprises 24 parcels of fruit, mostly from the St Andrews estate. Not all of the 10 barriques were used; the remainder went into the St Andrews Cabernet. Wakefield The Legacy confirms that the company, once synonymous with high-volume, modestly priced wines with a big supermarket presence, is making a big effort at the top end.

‘When I started with Taylors, it was about making the best value wines we could. But we are evolving as the industry is evolving,’ says Eggins, who will celebrate 20 years at Wakefield in 2020. Now, it’s about making the best wines he can, with no limits. This began with The Visionary Cabernet Sauvignon and The Pioneer Shiraz (starting with 2009 and 2012 respectively), pitched high at A$200 each, and, this year, Wakefield The Legacy.

Clare Valley roots

The first Taylors Clare Valley wines were the 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, but the story actually begins much earlier. The Taylor family were Sydney hotel owners and wine merchants when, in 1950, they partnered with the Clare Valley Co-operative to bottle and distribute their own wines under the Chateau Clare label. Wanting to get more involved in growing and making wine, and inspired by the great châteaux of Bordeaux, the family explored the wine regions of Australia, finally deciding on the Clare Valley in 1969, where they bought land beside then Wakefield River at Auburn, in the southern part of the region.

Jim Barry, of the eponymous winery, was then winemaker at Clarevale. He helped the Taylors prepare and plant their first Cabernet Sauvignon vines, the stock gifted by David Wynn from Wynns Coonawarra Estate. The story goes that while excavating a dam for water storage, Bill Taylor senior found the fossilised remains of tiny seahorses in the limestone bedrock – a reminder that the area was once under sea, 600 million years earlier. The family adopted a trio of seahorses as its symbol.

A grand, white, château-style building, complete with battlements, was completed just in time for the inaugural 1973 vintage and named Chateau Clare Estate. The 1973 Taylors Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz (then labeled Hermitage) were released and the Cabernet promptly won the Montgomery Trophy for the best red wine at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show.

Quality Riesling

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Taylors bought more land and planted more vineyards in the district, its emphasis swinging more to whites in keeping with public tastes. The St Andrews estate was purchased in the mid-1990s and the St Andrews brand of premium wines – Cabernet, Shiraz and Riesling – was launched in 1999.

Taylors/Wakefield is known primarily for reds but Riesling is its unsung hero. Clare is of course famous for Riesling, and Eggins considers he has worked out the best way to vinify it. ‘All our Riesling is whole-bunch pressed, which gives juices of very low phenolics, high acidity and low pH. We can have very low residual sugars – say 1g/L – and yet the wines are not hard or astringent. I say we are the biggest whole-bunch presser in Australia after Chandon.’ (Whole-bunch pressing is normal for sparkling wine.)

In fact, what Eggins does is actually whole-berry pressing, because the grapes are mechanically harvested, leaving the stalks on the vines. And whole-berry pressing differs from the usual Australian Riesling technique of crushing the grapes.

That said, the company is likely to remain focused on big reds, especially Cabernet. Eggins says of the St Andrews Cabernet: ‘We want them big – as big and masculine as we can get in Clare.’

See Huon Hooke’s pick of the best from Wakefield Estate

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What began in 1970 as a Hunter Valley hobby-farm vineyard for three Sydney-based solicitor friends, Tony Albert, John Beeston and James Halliday, has today evolved into one of Australia’s premier wine brands.

Brokenwood Wines produces an impressive range of high quality wine from vineyards around Australia, including the Canberra District, Beechworth, and even as far afield as McLaren Vale. However, it’s in the heart of the Hunter Valley – Australia’s oldest wine region – that Brokenwood calls home.

‘Hunter Valley terroir is very unique in Australia,’ declares Brokenwood’s managing director and chief winemaker, Iain Riggs AM. ‘Our sub-tropical climate typically means dry winters and wet summers, so humidity, low fertility soils and rapid ripening from véraison to harvest plays a big part in the unique quality of Hunter wine.’Semillon and Shiraz are the stalwart wine grapes of the Hunter Valley. While Brokenwood doesn’t own any Semillon vineyards itself, it produces an outstanding expression from two of the finest sandy-loam Semillon vineyards in the region: Oakey Creek and Trevena.

ILR Semillon

‘The ILR [Iain Leslie Riggs] Reserve Semillon is typically a blend of two high-quality vineyards in the Hunter, bottled under screwcap and released with six years of bottle age,’ Riggs explains.

Graveyard Shiraz

Brokenwood’s most significant vineyard holding is Graveyard, so named because the 15ha patch of red clay-loam and ironstone patches was once dedicated as a cemetery, although it was never used as such. The first Shiraz vines were planted in 1968, with the Brokenwood partners purchasing the vineyard ten years later. The first single-vineyard Shiraz was made by Riggs in 1983.

It’s the only Hunter Valley Shiraz in the Langton’s Classification, occupying a spot in the highest, ‘Exceptional’, category.

‘We only make Graveyard in the very best years, usually to around 13-14% alcohol, with 100% new French oak. Because of the lack of colour and tannin extraction, the wines are very much in the medium-bodied spectrum, which is typical of most Hunter reds.’

The tasting

In late 2018, Brokenwood invited a select number of guests to attend the opening of their new cellar door and taste a 13-vintage vertical of their seminal ILR Semillon, and an 18-vintage vertical of their quintessential Graveyard Shiraz. Below are my highlights of the tasting – the top six vintages of each wine.

Tasting Brokenwood’s Hunter Valley wines:

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Bruce Tyrrell introduced screwcaps to his famed Vat 47 Chardonnay in 2004. Daniel Honan picks out his top 10 vintages from this screwcap era...

The first time Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay was entered for judging at an Australian wine show, in 1973, it scored six points out of 20. As Bruce Tyrrell jokingly recalls, one of the spit buckets scored eight.

Since then, rather serendipitously, Vat 47 has gone on to win 47 wine show trophies throughout its 47-year existence.

Scroll down to see the wines

Winemaker Andrew Spinaze says the philosophy of Vat 47 is simple; ‘the fruit is king.’ Timing the picking in the Short Flat vineyard, and ensuring careful handling of the fruit in the winery, is crucial.

Of course, bottling is also an important process, which brings us to the theme of this tasting: since 2004, Vat 47 has been bottled under a screwcap closure.

‘We were dealing with about five to six cork companies,’ Bruce Tyrrell explains. ‘We had 30 batches of corks, priced around $2 a cork, and not one of those thirty batches passed quality control. So that was that. The introduction of screwcap in 2004 saved Vat 47’s reputation from the damage done by dud corks.’

There’s a clear evolution of the house style in this screwcap era – no malo, lees stirring, the re-introduction of gentle basket pressing, and deliberate oak selection.

What emerged over this 14-year vertical of Vat 47 Chardonnay was the elemental pedigree of the Short Flat vineyard to exhibit provenance, authenticity and vitality, despite vintage variation or age, and the perpetual paradox of the Hunter Valley as a world-class wine growing region.

Daniel’s top 10 screwcap Vat 47 Chardonnays:

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Expansion has seen De Bortoli become one of Australia's most successful wineries...

Arriving in New South Wales from Italy, in 1928 Vittorio De Bortoli founded what is today one of Australia’s most successful family-owned wineries.

The estate has expanded into some of Australia’s best known wine regions across Victoria and New South Wales including the Yarra, King and Hunter Valleys and most recently, Heathcote.

View all of Decanter’s De Bortoli tasting notes

There has been a move towards sustainable and biological farming practices, delivering high quality fruit and real environmental benefits. In fact, in 2016 De Bortoli were awarded New South Wales’ first Sustainability Advantage Platinum Project certificate, in recognition of outstanding environmental leadership and commitment to innovation.

Sarah Fagan, winemaker at the Yarra Valley estate, uses French oak as a supportive role rather than a driving force. She notes that the Cabernet Sauvignon here responds well to a longer growing season. ‘We tend to find that if we are able to pick during the so called Indian Summer period, we see more refined tannins, expressive fruit lift and generally a more balanced wine as a result’.

A collection of some of Australia's greatest wines worth an estimated five million dollars has gone missing in the country.

Police in the Hunter region have appealed to the public for information after failing to find the A$5m stash of missing Australian wines.

Full details of the wines were not released, but police said the haul was made up of dozens of individual wine collections.

Bottles include some of Australia’s best-known wine names, such as Penfolds Grange and Henschke.

Police said the wines were being held by Wine Investment Services Pty Ltd until 2013, when the firm collapsed into receivership.

Some of the firm’s assets were seized, but ‘inquiries revealed a number of wine collections were not surrendered’, police said.

• SEE ALSO: Australian wine burglars caught on CCTV

In March 2016, detectives from the State Crime Command’s Fraud and Cybercrime Squad launched an operation named ‘Strike Force Farrington’ to investigate the missing wine.

Officers raided a warehouse in Newcastle on 31 May and seized documents and electronic devices, police said.

‘As investigations continue, detectives are appealing for assistance from the public to locate the wine collections.’

Police added, ‘In particular, they would like to speak with anyone who may have purchased, or has been approached to purchase, collectable or vintage wines, including Penfolds Grange, varieties of Henschke, Torbreck, and Chris Ringland/Three Rivers.’

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Bob Oatley, Australian wine pioneer and founder of Rosemount Estate, as well as owner of the Wild Oats XI yacht, has died at the age of 87.

Bob Oatley established Rosemount Estate in 1969 and built it into one of the driving forces of the modern Australian wine industry before selling via a A$1.5bn merger deal with rival Southcorp in 2001.

Five years later, he set up Robert Oatley Vineyards with son Sandy, and was also a keen sailing enthusiast whose yachts dominated the Sydney to Hobart race, and also won the Admiral’s Cup in Cowes.

From modest beginnings in the Hunter Valley, Oatley made his first fortune in exporting coffee and cocoa beans from Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and 1960s.

He was named as an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2014 Australia Day Honours.

Fellow winemaker Bruce Tyrrell told the ABC News website: ‘He drove Rosemount into those early days of exporting Australian wine.

‘You know I remember in the early ’80s being thrown out of a New York liquor store because “they didn’t make wine” in Australia.

‘Bob and the crew at Rosemount were really one of the ones that did a huge amount of work to break that down.’

Announcing Bob Oatley’s death with ‘profound sadness’, the Oatley family said, ‘The Oatley family has been touched by the many kind words and tributes that have already been received from friends, colleagues and the wider Australian community. They thank everyone for their love and condolences.’

Several inland Australian wine regions are almost entirely unprofitable, according to analysis by the country's winemaker federation that highlights a gulf in earnings between areas.

More than 90% of production in Australian wine regions including Hunter Valley, Riverland and Swan District is unprofitable, said the Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA) this week.

Its figures underline the difficult conditions many Australian winemakers and grape growers face.

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But its report also points to a two-speed Australian wine sector, with wine production in cooler climate regions much more profitable; albeit 43% of cool climate production is still loss making, according to WFA figures.

‘Many producers in the warm inland regions in particular continue to experience enormous challenges,’ said WFA chief executive Paul Evans. ‘Our analysis shows that 92% of production in warm inland areas is unprofitable.’

Conditions in some areas have also improved in recent years. Only 28% of Barossa wine production is loss making, versus 50% three years ago.

Evans said it was positive that grape prices across Australia have risen by 5% in the past year, albeit off a low base. He said Australia’s new free trade agreements with several Asian countries, including China, helped to provide a ‘window of oppotunity’ for growers.

‘We must urgently seize the potential to grow demand for Australian wine and help address the on-going structural mismatch between supply and demand at profitable price points,’ he said.

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The Hunter Valley wine-growing region risks being 'ripped apart' by changes to New South Wales planning regulations, campaigners fear.

Open cut coal mine in the Hunter Valley. Image: © david hancock / Alamy

Vineyards and racehorse breeders in the Hunter have long battled against the threat of coal and methane gas mining, but now the New South Wales government is considering the draft of a new, amended State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).

If adopted, protesters claim, this new policy would prioritise the potential economic benefits of a new mining project over other considerations, such as the environmental impact on vineyards, stud farms and tourism.

The Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association has outlined its ‘strong opposition’ to the reforms in an official submission to New South Wales Planning, ahead of this week’s deadline for public comments.

Association spokesman Stewart Ewen told ABC that the new law would place the emphasis on ‘ripping the Hunter apart’ and appeared to signal a return to allowing unprecedented mining initiatives in the area.

Meanwhile, pressure group Hunter Valley Protection Alliance argued that the draft SEPP effectively meant that the bigger the mine, the more likely it was to be approved.

‘If the government goes back on its promises, there will be no protection for the wine industry or the extensive wine tourism industry, and the many jobs which flow from them,’ it said.

However, the New South Wales government is also considering another new planning assessment which could help protect vineyards from mining developments.

The Lower Hunter Strategic Assessment aims to offer environmental protection to rural areas from the impact of urban development, state planning officials say.

Written by Richard Woodard

An Australian energy company's plans to mine gas on two wine estates in the Hunter Valley would be a 'desecration', local activists say.

Image: Isango

AGL Energy has purchased Poole’s Rock vineyard and the adjacent property Yellow Rock Estate as part of its Hunter gas project.

The company claims the agricultural activities currently carried out on these properties, including viticulture, cattle grazing and cropping, will be continued.

‘It is our belief that over time we will demonstrate to the community that our industry is low impact, it is safe, it is clean and that it can coexist alongside farming, wine-making and other agricultural industries,’ AGL Group general manager upstream gas, Mike Moraza, said.

However, local opponents are calling on the government to step in to protect the region.

Graeme Gibson of the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance told Decanter.com.’The coal seam methane industry in the world-acclaimed Hunter Valley vineyards must be stopped.

‘The South Australian government is protecting the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale from this insidious industry. The Western Australian government is protecting the Margaret River similarly. The New South Wales government, prior to the March election this year, committed to protect the Hunter wine industry, but is yet to take any steps along the lines of the other states,’ he added.

The founder of Poole’s Rock, the late David Clarke, was an active anti-coal seam methane gas campaigner.

The sale, says Gibson, ‘desecrates’ his memory and ‘would have him turning in his grave’.

But Moraza defended AGL’s actions. ‘I acknowledge that the late David Clarke, whose family has sold us the Poole’s Rock property, expressed some concerns about the CSG industry in the Hunter.

‘We spoke to David directly about his concerns late last year so we do understand his point of view.’

Written by Rebecca Gibb in Auckland

Hunter Valley winemaker Bruce Tyrrell has spoken out about the grape oversupply crisis in Australia.

An glut of unwanted grapes from the 2009 harvest had forced many growers to sell their vineyard sites, which were bought up by mining companies.

Speaking at the Fine Wine 2010 conference in Ribera del Duero, Spain, Tyrrell told decanter.com that despite a surge in the number of vineyards being sold, he expected the best sites to survive.

‘A lot of vineyards are being demolished and the coal miners are buying them up, but no great vineyards will be lost,’ he said.

‘On the one hand we’ve got the government pushing a sustainability initiative, and on the other we’ve got vineyards being turned into mining sites.’

‘Newcastle in New South Wales is the world’s largest coal export port.’

In February, a leading academic claimed that Australia needed to reduce its vineyard area by as much as 30% if it wanted to achieve supply-demand balance.

Tyrrell, who hand picks and uses a traditional grape press for his three single vineyard whites, is keen to protect the historic sites.

‘I’m looking into making the single vineyards from the oldest blocks National Heritage sites so no one can touch them.’

Referring to the 2010 vintage in Australia – dominated by rain and cool weather, a stark contrast to the heat and fire of last year – Tyrrell was bullish.

‘We’ve had great rains this year’, he said. ‘Our place looks like the Garden of Eden – I can’t buy enough cattle to eat the grass.’

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Written by Lucy Shaw in Ribera del Duero

Hunter Valley winery Brokenwood is renowned for its Graveyard Shiraz. But the white wines it has introduced more recently are also winning acclaim. By TIM GRANGE.

In 1882, the town planners responsible for designing the new settlement of Pokolbin in Australia’s Hunter Valley sketched out the entire town in advance, only to find that their optimism was not shared by many prospective inhabitants. Today, though a large number of wineries now quote a Pokolbin address, settlement remains sparse. When James Halliday and a couple of other solicitors from Sydney came to establish the Brokenwood winery in 1970, they named their vineyards (and the resultant wines) according to the sites they occupied on the original town map. Hence a winery whose fame has been built on its Graveyard and Cricket Pitch.

Since the first vintage in 1973, Brokenwood has built a reputation as one of the Hunter Valley’s most formidable wineries. Not the best-known Hunter name outside Australia (Rosemount, Lindemans and Rothbury all established more of an early profile in the UK), Brokenwood is nevertheless justly renowned for its Graveyard Shiraz. But though its success is built on Hunter fruit, Brokenwood today vinifies and blends from a wide range of quality sites, employing a formula well known and practised by canny businesses all over the commercial world: build the name, then diversify.

Chardonnay’s funeral

It is this pragmatic approach that has led the team to commit to replanting the Graveyard with Shiraz, at the expense of Chardonnay. This will inevitably lead to the demise of the single-vineyard Graveyard Chardonnay, and is bound to upset fans. But the company prefers to make the best wine possible. And in the Graveyard, that means Shiraz.

Now a syndicate of 23 partners, Brokenwood produces 17 different wines from McLaren Vale, Beechworth King Valley, Padthaway and Cowra/Canowindra in addition to the Hunter. That translates into around 40,000 cases per year of Shiraz, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon, Chardonnay, Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot, botrytis Riesling and Verdelho.

https://www.decanter.com/wine/grape-varieties/semillon-grape-varieties/

When in 1982 the partners decided to diversify into white wine production, they appointed Iain Riggs (formerly of Bleasedale and Hazelmere in McLaren Vale) as winemaker and managing director. Just a year later Brokenwood’s output was 70% white. Fast forward to 2003 and Riggs is still running the show (now as part-owner) but has since been joined in his winemaking duties, four years ago, by Peter-James Charteris, a New Zealander responsible for creating Yattarna for Southcorp. Charteris is now largely responsible for the winemaking at Brokenwood, especially for the whites – witness the new Forest Edge Chardonnay, entirely his creation and the subject of ‘a huge amount of debate’, says Riggs. ‘It’s a little bit different from the norm.’

Putting the finished wines together is shared between both of them: Charteris admits he’d ‘rather have two minds on a blend than one’. Painting the bigger picture about the direction Brokenwood takes is also a joint effort, though here Riggs takes an important monitoring role, ensuring consistent quality and style through regional blending where appropriate.

It is Riggs’ intention to build on the company’s success at the premium end of the market through the production of (predominantly red) single-vineyard wines. Working with the right growers is crucial if the wines are to compete at the top level. ‘We visit our growers several times a year,’ says Riggs. ‘They’re an open and friendly bunch. After the Rayner Vineyard Shiraz won a major wine award in London we did a vineyard tour and growers were only too anxious to show us what they’d been doing. They’re pretty competitive. One grower virtually retrained his whole vineyard, then lost the entire crop after a poor fruit set.’

Riggs is a regular wine show judge. He is ‘a huge fan of the wine show system. It’s enabled the industry to learn a lot in a short space of time,’ he says. ‘As a result, what we’ve achieved in a technical sense is amazing.’ But has it short-changed wine lovers by encouraging homogeneity? Riggs is scornful: ‘I don’t accept that at all. The wine show system is for winemakers, and is nothing to do with consumers. It demonstrates what is acceptable in terms of fruit purity and technical competence.’

Charteris also regularly judges his way through hundreds of wines at a sitting. ‘You get used to it,’ he says. ‘It’s a question of concentration.’ Unlike Riggs, he accepts that the show system in the past has led to a tendency in the industry to produce copycat wines. But while ‘that might have been the case a few years ago, I think we’ve moved away from that now,’ he adds. But is it skewed against idiosyncratic winemaking? ‘It’ll root out idiosyncratic wines that are technically faulty – you can always learn something from that.’

Making plans

So what lies ahead? ‘The biggest challenge for the Australian wine industry,’ says Riggs, ‘is the next 10–15 years – once we’ve got the technical side down pat. You have to continue the momentum. Brokenwood must never stop going forward.’

Riggs discusses the possibility of a restructure for Brokenwood. ‘The partners have regular soul-searching about what to do, because the partnership is getting older, but no one has yet come up with any big dollars.’ In the short term, Riggs is concentrating on trying to get into new export markets and on introducing new wines. ‘The domestic market is tough – mind you, so’s export – but we’re working on a few new wines. Take our vineyards over at Beechworth [where Brokenwood has a fruit contract on 36 hectares]. We’re looking at Pinot Gris, Viognier, Sangiovese, Cabernet-Merlot and new Pinot clones – the Pinot potential there is breathtaking. And we’re working on another McLaren Vale single vineyard Shiraz that’s awesome, but different to the Rayner.

‘Cricket Pitch has a huge following, and rightly so: it’s great quality for the price. We’ve always taken pains to use fruit from the best areas and we’ll continue to do so.’

Brokenwood has a strong hand to play. Great vineyards, small growers queuing up to become part of the Brokenwood fold, and some excellent quality wines at modest price levels. A far cry from the few cases of Cabernet-Shiraz 1973 made by three Sydney-based solicitors. Perhaps there’s something to be said for slow and steady progress after all.

Written by Tim Grange

It’s a bugger of a place to make wine,’ says Hunter pioneer Max Lake with typical Aussie candour, smashing the common belief that as long as the sun shines, making wine is child’s play.

He’s right. With only one good vintage in three, this breathtakingly beautiful piece of New South Wales is a real challenge to even the most experienced winemaker. But there’s good news too. The prize for those who succeed is an exceptional bottle of wine. ‘At its best, there’s nothing like a Hunter wine anywhere else in the world,’ says Hunter legend Len Evans.

To complicate matters further, recent climatic changes have made life more difficult. ‘Over the past three years the degree days are way down and the rainfall has been in the spring and not the autumn,’ confirms Glenguin’s winemaker Robin Tedder MW.

So, you may ask, if the place is so difficult why are so many persevering? The answer’s simple. Not only do the Aussies love a good challenge, they also know that their ripe, crisp Shiraz, dense, juicy Cabernets, exotic Semillons and blockbuster Chardonnays, are once again setting the world alight.

‘Us Aussies don’t look for problems, we just get on with the job,’ smiles Lake.

Australian Vintage Guide

The Hunter Valley

The Hunter is divided into the Lower and Upper Valleys and is conveniently located just three hours drive from Sydney, and the vineyards are the sixth most popular tourist attraction in Australia. Never slow to seize a business opportunity, the Hunter wineries are building custom-made visitor centres, complete with exhibitions and tasting galleries.

The big names of Rosemount, Tyrell’s, McWilliams and Rothbury still dominate, but there’s a new breed of winemaker on the scene – the Pitt Street Farmers. Pitt Street is Sydney’s downtown financial district and, you’ve guessed it, the ‘farmers’ are successful lawyers, accountants and doctors who are trying their hand at winemaking. ‘They see only the dollar signs and not the difficulties of the Hunter,’ comments Meerea Park’s winemaker, Rhys Ether. At first glance it all looks easy, but the myriad microclimates and the ever changing ‘sand to volcanic’ soils have fooled many prospectors who come looking for Hunter gold. ‘It’s all about site selection,’ says Rothbury’s winemaker, Alan Harris. ‘You’ve got to know where to plant. Some just come and plant anywhere and ironically discover their mistakes via their bank account.’

The ‘old boys’ know the Hunter’s secrets, of course. ‘Our founder, Samuel McWilliam, established our vineyards in 1877, and one of our best sites was planted in the 1880s,’ notes McWilliams winemaker Phil Ryan. ‘The original, 120-year old vines are still giving fantastic powerful and tannic wines.’

It is widely accepted that Shiraz, Semillon and the Hunter is a marriage made in heaven, but Max Lake at his famous Lake’s Folly vineyard disagrees. ‘It’s Cabernet Sauvignon for me. I planted it in 1963 and have no regrets,’ he exclaims. Big Rhys Ether argues against this: ‘Why plant Cabernet in the Hunter when it’s made for Shiraz?’ And Glenguin’s Tedder agrees: ‘Cabernet loses its character here as the Hunter imposes her own.’ Merlot is coming up fast and is a particular favourite of Margan’s winemaker Andrew Margan. ‘This classic has a real future in the Hunter because of its inherent softness,’ he says.

Arguments also surface when it comes to the whites. Although it is well established that Semillon performs best, Chardonnay is widely planted to give big wines that respond well to oak maturation. Margan again rings the changes by showing confidence in the little seen Verdelho. ‘Its lifted, perfumed tropical fruits and rich palate are perfect with our spicy foods,’ he explains. Harris agrees: ‘Verdelho is always the empty bottle at the end of a tasting.’

Vineyards

Irrigation is allowed in the Hunter and many vineyards have built their own dams but, as always, the Hunter has her own ideas. ‘When it comes to yields the Lower Hunter is mean,’ confirms Andrew Margan. ‘All my vines are on red volcanic soil. I pick my reds at 0.4 tonnes per hectare (ha), my whites at 0.8 tonnes/ha. That’s what the vines yield, no more, no less.’ Alan Harris looks across the guyot-trained vineyards to Rothbury’s half-full dam. ‘The joke is that when the dam’s full you don’t need the water and when it’s empty you do,’ he laughs. In the Upper Hunter, the Hunter river gives the vines more vigour and higher yields are possible. Up to 2–2.5 tonnes/ha confirms Harris.

The word ‘terroir’ was not in the Hunter vocabulary a few years ago, but now it is the key to a cunning marketing strategy used by many winemakers to pull rank over their neighbours. Listening to one Lower Hunter vineyard owner pronouncing proudly: ‘the aspect, soil and microclimate of my best block makes it far superior to my neighbours,’ I thought for a second I was in Bordeaux. Many Hunter labels now give the vineyard as well as the grape. ‘Our Brockenwood plot gives us consistent fruit,’ boasts Harris. And Tedder wants to classify the River Terrace and River Oaks vineyards: ‘to establish an identity for these exceptional wines’.

Hunter wine

In recent years, a new style of wine has emerged. These ‘new’ wines still have the typical Hunter richness and balancing crisp acidity but the fruit is less ‘in yer face’ and this, linked to a greater control of oak, is producing wines with a definite European edge. French oak is replacing the more obvious American barrels and, typically, Tyrell’s winemaker Bruce Tyrell continues to experiment. ‘To provide a better balance we are reducing the maturation time, but are also using larger 500 litre barrels to reduce the oak impact,’ he explains.

Blockbuster ‘show’ wines still play an important part in the Hunter albeit, it seems, on a smaller scale. The traditional Hunter wines continue to produce tasting notes such as ‘weighty fruit, softer tannins and crisp acidity,’ but it’s the acidity that always surprises your taste buds. Stretching a point, it could be said that a fourth style is now emerging: ‘designer’ wines.

Andrew Margan is a leading exponent, explaining that potential customers ‘know exactly what they want, and that’s immediate appeasement’. To meet this increasing demand, he is making easy drinking, approachable wines – the Merlot is typical, with its soft, plummy sweet fruit balanced with a touch of oak. This ‘touch’ is six weeks in 225 litre American oak barrels.

Although the Hunter offers styles to satisfy every taste, many consumers still group the wines under one ‘drink me quick’ hat. With UK statistics showing that over 90% of Australian wine is drunk within 24 hours of purchase, it doesn’t need a genius to see that to be taken a little more seriously, Oz wine needs a vintage portfolio and a marketing push to tell consumers to hold on.

Thankfully, some winemakers are taking steps to prevent this premature consumption. Tyrell’s, for example, has a well-established ‘future’s scheme’. And at Meerea Park, owner Rhys Ether keeps half and releases half of his premium Alexandra Munro reds ‘to ensure that the discerning consumer drinks the wine at its peak’. It’s good to see that aged Semillon, surely one of the world’s finest wines, and long the sole bottle on the vintage Hunter shelf, will have company in the future.

The Hunter’s back and going from strength to strength. Why? Strewth man, there’s a new pride in the Valley.

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