THE WINE FRONT

Written by Campbell Mattinson.

 
It is one of the great mysteries of wine. The Hunter Valley is a wine region with a very great advantage over most of the wine regions of the world: it grows a grape and produces a wine from it that is acknowledged as the best in the world; the benchmark. It is the same kind of advantage enjoyed by Burgundy and Bordeaux and Champagne. And as if this wasn’t enough, the Hunter also enjoys – by a long shot – the greatest number of visitors of any Australian wine region. This is a wine region that should be thriving. But it is not.

In many ways, indeed, it is languishing – though it’s not if you’re in the resort or hot-air balloon business. While tourism facilities grow better and more elaborate by the day – the Hunter Valley does, after all, attract more than 1.5 million visitors each year, a figure that would make regions like Coonawarra and the Pyrenees weep – the reputation of Hunter Valley wine outside of its own boundaries, and the boundaries of its closest major city (Sydney), is not so much as haemorrhaging as lying deflated on the floor.

As any wine retailer from Adelaide or Perth or Brisbane or Melbourne will tell you: outside of three or four wines (only), there is almost no demand for the wines of the Hunter Valley. They are the hardest sale – a fact most potently illustrated by the fact that outside of Sydney, there is barely a Hunter Valley brand represented on any of the major wine distributor’s books. The fact is, outside of the winemakers themselves, no one could much be bothered pushing Hunter wine anymore. It’s too hard – indeed, even the winemakers themselves don’t really push it outside of Sydney and their own backyard.

Len Evans AO, OBE, not only in many ways the doyen of the modern Australian wine industry but a long time champion, and resident, of the Hunter Valley (and its wines), would be the first to agree with the above summary. “What we did wrong (in the 1970s, 80s and 90s) is that we failed to maintain the purity of the district – though it’s hard to call it a mistake, because just about everyone would’ve gone broke if they had.”

Not that things aren’t improving – from a wine quality perspective. “I’ve seen more good Hunter Valley reds in the last four years than I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Evans says, “and believe me, I’ve seen some terrible, utterly terrible wine produced around here in the past. Hunter Valley shiraz has been out of fashion while the Parker blood and guts style has been in favour, but there is a wonderful core of young winemakers here now who are not so commercially minded and who want to make really good wine. And the thing about these wines is that they’ll last.”

Shiraz, shiraz, shiraz – we live in an age of shiraz. The drift towards shiraz at the expense of all other varieties is like the drift of a dessert, slowly enveloping more and more of the red wine market. When wine drinkers start exploring new styles, shiraz simply adapts – and becomes syrah. In this environment, then, it might be surprising that Hunter Valley wine is not more in favour. After all, no one disputes the Hunter Valley’s two great performers: shiraz and semillon. That much was established as far back as the 1920s, when the legendary winemaker Maurice O’Shea was toiling away at his l’Hermitage winery at Mount Pleasant.

So if the Hunter is great at shiraz (and it is), isn’t it holding one of the key market cards?

And so to the crux of things: here is where we open the face of the modern wine market and peer direct into its mind.

Because the over-riding theme of all wine consumption today is towards greater deliciousness in wine – in all areas of the world. This is a highly important fact in relation to the Hunter Valley.

This deliciousness can be achieved or displayed in many different ways: less or softer tannin, less or softer acidity, greater fruitiness, a greater softness or slipperiness of oak, a greater glycerol smoothness often associated with a rise in the alcohol level or, of course, good old fashioned sweetness. Or all of the above. This is where Hunter Valley wine can get into trouble.

Because the best, from a critical and sheer quality and terroir-based perspective, of Hunter Valley wine usually runs in direct opposition to the above over-riding theme. That is, the best Hunter Valley wines can lack a basic, easy deliciousness.

This is in no way a criticism.

The best Hunter Valley wines are commonly savoury, earthen, mid-weight shiraz that needs time in the cellar to show its true worth. Shiraz, and dry semillon – the most heralded of all Hunter wine, with critics both domestically and internationally heralding its greatness.

Semillon though has a similar problem to Hunter shiraz: it needs to be aged to show its best, and at its best it is an aged wine. Both halves of the coin are important.

Because while many Hunter Valley producers will do some or all of this aging for you: Mount Pleasant Elizabeth most popularly, but Tyrrell’s, Meerea Park, and Brokenwood (and others) also release terrific, aged, ready-to-go semillon wines. This would solve the problem, if it weren’t for that other half of the coin: whilst of course many wine drinkers adore drinking aged, mature wine, the vast bulk of wine drinking consumers either don’t see the fuss of old wine, or don’t ‘get it’, or haven’t acquired the taste, or perhaps more accurately simply wonder where the fresh fruit flavours have gone.

This of course is the real crux of the Hunter Valley’s modern wine problem: its wines drink best as aged wines, but the drinking public has moved overwhelmingly towards younger, fruitier, fresher – more delicious – wine styles.

The Hunter Valley’s best wines then – and they are world class, and world beating, in their style, no doubt about it – are, in the current (and likely to be continuing) consumer environment, in some ways its biggest disadvantage too. This is not an easy problem to fix. This is why there is an ongoing debate within the Hunter Valley over whether semillon, for instance, should be made in classical, best-quality, ageworthy mode (Tyrrell’s, Brokenwood, McWilliams, Meerea Park etc), or whether it should be made more fruity, more fun, and more like sauvignon blanc (Tempus Two, De Bortoli, Lindemans etc).

Clearly the wine cognoscenti, and wine critics, tend to vote strongly in favour of the classical, dry, ageworthy style – in difficult times, play to your strengths, and stay true to the voice of your land – regardless of whether this is actually what people want, and whether this might send you broke. Clearly then, those with a realistic market eye move towards the side of the fruitier, more delicious way of thinking.

Neither way of thinking is necessarily right or wrong. There is naturally room for both, or indeed room for neither – when you travel around the Hunter Valley today, it is remarkable how many wineries, new and old, are selling wines actually grown and or made in other wine regions. It almost makes you think that Hunter Valley vineyards could be maintained as ornamental displays for tourists – only.

It’s an heretical thought, and one that if realised would be the greatest of wine tragedies – the Hunter Valley has been producing wine since at least the 1870s, and it still remains today one of the few regions in the world with recognisable wine styles, and recognisable flavours – if the wine world is becoming McDonald’s-ised, then regions like the Hunter Valley, when performing at their best, are the antidote.

Remembering too, as Len Evans states above, the problems of the Hunter are not just about wine style, they are about a recent past that saw far too much ordinary wine at far inflated prices.

A positive: this is turning around rapidly, and to a significant extent it’s being turned around by small, quality-obsessed, boutique producers – the Hunter Valley, a home to Lindemans, Rosemount, Mount Pleasant and Tyrrell’s – is turning slowly back to its roots: to the little guys in a valley too far away, growing grapes in a too warm, too wet valley that gets the bulk of its rainfall just when a vigneron doesn’t want it – at harvest – and yet still somehow succeeding. As Garth Eather of the Meerea Park winery (one of the little guys doing a very good job) realistically puts it: “There is a band of really small producers doing some really good things, but the revival will no doubt be slow and painful”.

Whether or not that revival manifests in wider public enthusiasm, and sales, is debatable – when you look at the Hunter Valley’s wine history of the past 120 years, lean times for winemakers dominate, with boom times highly unusual, and short-lived – though with such incredible visitor numbers; with such spectacular tourism infrastructure; with such deep-set and long-standing wine history and, at the end of the day, such a scenic landscape – the region is bound to remain high in the wine public’s psyche.

An especially positive fact if you know where to look. Because, in the Hunter Valley today, you will find some quite superb wines – and increasing numbers of them.

Best Cellar Doors

The Boutique Wine Centre
Broke Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7474, email bwc@hunterlink.net.au

This has fast become a must-stop. It houses the exceptional range of Meerea Park wines – at all prices levels, outstanding value and quality – but also shows the wines of Chateau Pato (if you’re quick; they tend to sell out fast), Glenguin, Ferraris and Maestro. It’s a small, personal cellar door and you name the wine style – it’ll be here.

Scarborough
Gillards Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7563, www.scarboroughwine.com.au

Worth travelling here just for the view – it’s one of the best in the valley, of the valley – though the atmosphere and the wines themselves are right up to it too. Very high standard chardonnay in a terrific setting – it’s the kind of place you step into and feel right at home from the start.

McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant
Marrowbone Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7505, www.mcwilliams.com.au

The vines up on the hill behind the winery were planted in 1880 – the same vines that the legendary Maurice O’Shea tended until he died, his exquisite winemaking reign spanning 1921-1956. There have only been two chief winemakers to follow him, Brian Walsh and the current Phil Ryan, a sure sign that this is a magical place, and not one you want to leave in a hurry. At the cellar door the vines and the hills are all around, and the wines that they yield on tasting – more often than not there’s a fair selection of back vintages too.

Tyrrell’s
Broke Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4993 7000, www.tyrrells.com.au

The Tyrrells have been a winegrowing force in the Hunter Valley for as long as anyone can remember, though wine under its own label is roughly a 40 year story. They are the embodiment of what is great about the Hunter Valley. Tyrrell’s make wine from other Australian wine regions, but the Hunter is their backbone and their wines arguably typify the region’s most essential wine styles better than anyone. The cellar door, still carrying the full face of earthen tradition, showcases the winery’s (and region’s) strengths – semillon and shiraz – and is one of the great Australian winery visits.

Brokenwood
McDonalds Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7559, www.brokenwood.com.au

It’s tempting to call it the modern face of the Hunter but it’s actually got its own share of rusticity these days. There’s a wide range of wines at a wide range of prices, and the quality is always reliably good; at times spectacular. There are also often wines on tasting from other regions – so if you’ve been feasting on the Hunter and you’d love a ‘palate cleanser’ of McLaren Vale shiraz, Brokenwood can provide.

Lake’s Folly
Broke Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7507, www.lakesfolly.com.au

When the prodigious talent and influence of Max Lake finally came to an end at Lake’s Folly a few years back, the temptation might have been to think that the ball would then be dropped: surely this was a winery built on the back of Lake’s personality. Such fears have proved unfounded. The wines are as idiosyncratic as they’ve ever been (the winery’s specialty is, after all, a Hunter cabernet blend) but they’re fresher and cleaner too, with their quality openly apparent. The vineyards roll over a gentle hill, and are quite beautiful.

Hungerford Hill
Broke Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7666, www.hungerfordhill.com.au

This is where the chic of Sydney meets the wine lands, all architecturally-designed modernism with the wines to match – there’s not a skerrick of anything traditional here. Let that not put you off: the wines are openly delicious in a drink-me-now style, and Damian Ho’s food at the winery’s Terroir Restaurant can be outstanding.

Tower Estate
Cnr Broke and Halls Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7989, www.towerestate.com.au

While many of the wines on tasting here are not made from grapes grown in the Hunter Valley, this is a stand-out cellar door of utter, quality-obsessed style. Plus, of course, there is a Hunter semillon and a Hunter shiraz, and they both are of top quality – a great credit to outgoing winemaker Dan Dineen (who is heading to New Zealand; Scott Stephens is taking over the winemaking reigns at Tower). This estate is, again, a must-visit.

De Bortoli
Branxton Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4993 8800, www.debortoli.com.au

Well known in other regions but relatively new to the Hunter Valley – yet still a winery worth visiting. Chardonnay, verdelho, merlot and shiraz, all mostly made in the easy-drinking, delicious style. Value prices too.

Lindemans
McDonalds Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7684, www.lindemans.com.au

I like Lindemans even if recently the wines have not been what they once were – though there has been the odd sign that things are turning around. Both the mainstay semillon and shiraz wines have headed towards the delicious, early-drinking style, and while it’s legitimate and tasty it pales compared to the cellarworthy magnificence of the past. Rock up and decide for yourself: across the wine history of the Hunter Valley this winery has been hugely important, and its cellar door lives and breathes that history. The 1965 Lindemans reds are considered to be among the top three wines ever made in Australia - an indication of what this estate is (or was) capabale of.

Poole’s Rock
DeBeyers Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7356, www.poolesrock.com.au

This is the old (famous) Tulloch winery though it’s been so impressively remodelled that you might not at first realise it – the more important point is that there’s a range of reliably-made Hunter and non-Hunter wine on tasting at a wide range of prices, and if you don’t find something that you like you’re probably being overly picky. Good chardonnay, good shiraz, good semillon and more.

Capercaillie
Londons Road, Lovedale
(02) 4990 2904, www.capercaillie.com.au

Newer entrant to the Hunter wine scene but well worth a stop – there’s a wide range of very good wine (the 2003 Ghillie Shiraz is exceptional) across a range of varieties, and an idiosyncratic quirk worth investigating: winemaker Alasdair Sutherland has a personal passion for the red grape chambourcin, and makes an excellent fist of it. There’s a fine art gallery as part of the cellar door too.

Drayton’s Family Wines
Oakey Creek Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7513, www.draytonswines.com.au

If you want Hunter Valley history, then Drayton’s is as genuine as it comes. The family has been growing grapes in the area from the start (roughly 140 years) and isn’t big on modern fads: they even still makes a range of ports and liqueur verdelhos, a practice that largely died out in the valley decades ago. The wine prices start a smidge over $8 per bottle, and work their way slowly up to $70 – though the vast bulk (and there are many) sell for less than $25. It’s very difficult not to be at least a little charmed here.

David Hook Wines
Broke Road, Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7121, www.davidhookwines.com.au

The 20 year old vineyards are at Belford but the cellar door is on Broke Road – at the Peppers Creek Winery. There’s a café and a lovely sandstone building, and wines to match the charm – well priced, and mostly between $14 and $27. Shiraz and chardonnay but pinot gris and viognier too; all of consistent (and rising) quality.

Piggs Peake Winery
Hermitage Road, Pokolbin
(02) 6574 7000, www.piggspeake.com

It’s new and a bit racy and fun – its wine club is called the Lucky Swine Club, and the wines have names like Sows Ear Semillon, Wiggly Tail Marsanne, Hogs Head Chardonnay and House of Straw Merlot. This is the place to go if you’re in the mood to take the whole wine thing a bit less seriously. The wines are not top shelf, but are OK, the marsanne arguably the best of them. The range includes a number of wines made from grapes grown outside of the Hunter Valley.

Best wines

2003 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz ($40) and Hell Hole Shiraz ($55)

Meerea Park has been the bolter of the past few years, producing a stream of excellent wines, both white and red. Its maker, Rhys Eather, is clearly one of the region’s winemaking stars. The Hell Hole Shiraz was matured in French oak, and in five years will begin to display everything that is great about Hunter shiraz – though it’s a delicious drink now too. Rich, flamboyant, and controlled, with cherried fruit shot through with red earth. This wine saw as much old oak as it did new; the result is superb. As, too, is the 2003 Alexander Munro Shiraz: it’s a sweep of sweet, ripe, berried fruit-and-tannin, and if you ever wanted reason to revisit Hunter shiraz, this is it.

2003 De Iuliis Wines Shiraz ($20)

A sheen of blue, minty, glossy oak overshadows a beautiful stream of ripe fruit: plums, cherries, leather and even a flash of spice. Give it another 12 months in the bottle for the oak to sink down, and you’ll have on your hands a beautiful Hunter red. The merlot from this producer is good too.

2003 Tyrrell’s Wines Vat 47 Chardonnay ($43)

It has an illustrious lineage and the 2002 was just beautiful – and the good news is that this is very fine too. Its flavoursome but impressively light on its feet, with delicacy as it trips along your tongue. Grapefruit, peach, some smoked caramel and a distinct, tangy acidity. It is very easy to recommend.

2003 Gartelmann Diedrich Shiraz ($26)

This is not a heavy or terribly substantial wine, but it is succulent and sweet-fruited with a delicious leatheriness eager to push forward. Vanillin oak kisses and tempts, and nearing three years of age it’s still exceptionally fresh.

2004 Thomas Kiss Shiraz ($48)

The wine is not cheap and if you’re inclined towards blockbuster reds you might wonder where all the extra stuffing is – which is not the heart of this wine. Rather, this is pure, stylish and savoury, swirling with chocolate and a bright, peppery, plummy fruitiness, its quality in its exotic flavour and inherent balance.

2003 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz ($100)

The 2003 season was hot and wild and firey through most of the south-east of Australia, and although some wines excelled many suffered. In general Hunter red wines faired far better than most, though the extremity of such a season always puts something of a question mark on the resultant wines, particularly if you’re planning to cellar them, and most particularly if you’re paying $100 a pop. While this wine is both rich and toasty, its fineness and purity is quite something to behold. Indeed, it has an elegance to it. It looks every bit like a very good Graveyard, even with the season factored in.

2003 Chateau Pato Shiraz ($40)

Nick Paterson is a gun young winemaker making superb single-vineyard, mature vine, shiraz off the vineyard his father, David, planted in 1980. This wine is awash with licorice and tar flavours of excellent weight and mouthfilling dimension, the gleam of toffeed oak melting beautifully into the fruit. Only roughly 100 cases are made.

2000 McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant Rosehill Shiraz ($32)

This was a cool vintage and it’s arguably in-laid some cool, herbal nuances, but the length and style and undeniably cellarability of it are all in the excellent class. There’s some chocolatey oak that perhaps could have been better handled, but in time it will drink beautifully.

2002 Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon ($17)

It just wouldn’t be a guide to the Hunter Valley without mention of this wine – arguably the valley’s most famous, and certainly one of its most respected. This release, put out a touch earlier than usual, is ready to rip any time from now, even though it will go another five years in the cellar with ease. Lemon, slate, a single crumb of toast and the lightest brush of lanolin. I like it a lot.

2003 Margan Single Vineyard Ceres Hill Barbera ($22)

Simple way to describe its quality: once you’ve had your first sip you keep wanting another and another. It’s just about the only barbera to come out of the Hunter Valley and it’s a ripper, all meaty and earthen – and natural. It was matured in old oak barrels and has a delicious mix of ripe, sweet fruit and more Italianate savouriness. Andrew Margan is on a winner here.

2004 Lake’s Folly Chardonnay ($45)

It’s made in something of an old-fashioned style – it’s buttery, weighty, malty – but there’s no doubt that it’s of excellent quality: pristine and true, with fruitier lime and dried herb and onion-skin flavours dancing along your tongue. It lingers impressively.

2003 Bimbadgen Individual Estate Signature Shiraz ($48) and 2004 Myall Road Botrytis Semillon ($17, 375ml)

The shiraz is superb, rich and balanced, lifted and floral, with crushes of perfect plum and cedar. It’s a ripping wine. The dessert-styled semillon, made from grapes grown at Yenda, is all lemon and butter and apricot and honey, and the moment it hits your lips is the moment the word ‘value’ pops up too.

Accommodation

If you can’t find somewhere nice to stay in the Hunter Valley, then you’re not really looking. This is not Australia’s most visited wine region for nothing – it’s elaborately decked out in the accommodation stakes. Indeed, that’s been one of the criticisms of the past 15 years: the valley has come to do classy hotel packages better than it does wine. Fortunately, a growing wine revival is on the way, and the beds are as good as ever.

Check www.winecountry.com.au, www.huntertourism.com, or www.huntervalley.com for a quick overview of all the best places.

The below is a quick snapshot of some of the valley’s best accommodation – this is by no means extensive.

Though in any list Hunter Valley Gardens, Broke Road, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 4000 has to rank near the top: it’s central to most of the region’s top wineries, the suites are exquisite, the onsite restaurant (Lazzarini’s) counts among the region’s best and if you need a stroll after or before or during, the gardens themselves are quite phenomenal, and extensive. This elaborate development caters for both the top end and the medium end, and does both terrifically.

Peppers Guest House, (02) 4993 8999, www.peppers.com.au, is another favourite, surrounded by tranquil gardens, nestled among vineyards, home to the Chez Pok restaurant and the endota spa and, simply, delightfully decked out. The Peppers Convent, (02) 4998 7764, once home to the Brigidine Order of Nuns, is now something quite different altogether: 17 deluxe rooms, fully of luxury and, dare I say it, glamour.

If you want to combine a wine holiday with golf – or even if you just want a lovely place to stay – the Cypress Lakes Resort, (02) 4993 1555, www.cypresslakes.com.au, is up with the best of them (from anywhere). Set on 340 acres of prime Hunter Valley land, and including an immaculate, world-standard golf course, this is a place where you can eat and spa and sleep and wine and relax and, well, do just about anything in complete luxury.

Best place to grab a coffee

Bliss Coffee, part of the Hunter Valley Gardens Village, Broke Road, Pokolbin (02) 4998 6700, not only serves excellent coffee but is a great place to stock up on coffee beans and various coffee (and tea) accessories. The other gun coffee stop-off is Toby’s Coffee House, also on Broke Road, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 7363.

Best places to dine

You won’t go hungry in the Hunter Valley and a large number of wineries serve food too – the best of which is arguably the award-winning Terroir Restaurant and Wine Bar at the Hungerford Hill winery, where the menu is not inexpensive but the quality – and wine and food matching – is high.

An excellent dining option, in a slightly more relaxed setting, is the Shakey Tables Restaurant (part of the Hunter Country Lodge, Cessnock-Branxton Road, Rothbury. (02) 4938 1744) – bright and interesting in décor and on the plate too. Haggis rolled in venison; pigeon stuffed with black pudding and prunes; confit of duck rolled in spinach – you get the picture. This is my personal favourite in the Valley – for quality and personality combined.

Roberts Restaurant, Halls Road, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 7330, www.robertsrestaurant.com, is similarly delightful, and similarly terrific. Run by Robert and Sally Molines in a French-Italian style, if you can’t find food to adore off this menu then you mustn’t be at all hungry. Just a gorgeous place.

Lazzarini’s at the Hunter Valley Gardens (see above or www.hvg.com.au) is homely and warm and much better than you might expect of a guest house dining room (a common conclusion in the Hunter). The Blaxlands Grill, Broke Road Pokolbin, (02) 4998 7550, recently overhauled and now specialising in grass-fed, nothing-artificial Grainge Beef (though there’s a lot more on offer too) is also impressive.

And for something completely different, and more relaxed again, the George and Dragon Tavern, Molly Morgan Drive, Maitland, (02) 4933 3222, does some terrific meals, and the Beltree at Margan Restaurant (see Margan winery above, 02 6574 7216), is a terrific setting offering meals and snacks of a relaxed sophistication.

All wined out?

There’s a heap to keep you occupied. The Bluetongue Brewery at the Hunter Resort. Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 7777 allows you to watch the action happen as you sip at the product – and of course, you can eat here too. Keeping with the beer theme, there’s also a Irish-themed pub in the region (it is a tourism Mecca after all), called Harrigans at the Hunter Valley Gardens.

The Hunter Valley Cheese Company at the McGuigans Complex, McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 7744, too, is a highlight of the region and if you have time, should be slotted in – this is also a great place to source ingredients if you have anything resembling a picnic planned.

OK, so you really want a bird’s eye view of the Hunter Valley? Try these: Hunter Wine Helicopters, Cessnock Airport, Wine Country Drive, Pokolbin, (02) 4991 7352. Or, of course, the famous ballooning over the vineyards, of which there are a couple of options: Balloon Aloft Australia, (02) 4938 1955, or Hunter Valley Ballooning (Balloon Safaris), (1800 81 81 91).

Copyright Campbell Mattinson 2006. 

Photo: Iain Riggs at Brokenwood, Hunter Valley. *Supplied by Brokenwood).