New South Wales

New South Wales, with Sydney as its capital, is Australia’s most populous state. Its wine region in this guide, the Hunter Valley, lies just over two hours north of Sydney. The Hunter is known for Semillon and Shiraz.

The four cellar doors in this guide are all around Pokolbin, at the heart of the Hunter’s wine country. A tasting costs 10 to 20 Australian dollars per adult. Tamburlaine also runs a guided vineyard and winery tour with tasting for 75 dollars. Tamburlaine has the cheapest tasting, at 10 dollars, and pours non-alcoholic wines for 5 dollars, useful for the driver. Harvest in the Hunter comes early by Australian standards, from January to March.

Getting there

Sydney has the nearest international airport. The Hunter Valley is a weekend trip from the city, by car or with a tour.

The Hunter Valley, New South Wales’ oldest vines

The Hunter is where Australian grape growing and winemaking began, says the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association. The first small plots, about 20 acres, were planted on the northern banks of the Hunter River in the early 1820s, and by 1840 the registered vineyard area had passed 500 acres (about 200 hectares).

• James Busby brought around 500 vine cuttings from collections in South America and Europe, including Syrah from the Hermitage hill in the Rhône.
• Dr Henry Lindeman was joined by the Drayton, Tulloch, Tyrrell and Wilkinson families, names still found on cellar doors around Pokolbin.
• The valley’s vines came through the phylloxera outbreak of the late 1800s, which destroyed 70% of Europe’s vineyards, untouched, so some are among the oldest in the world. Old-vine Shiraz, Semillon and Chardonnay are sold at the source, at Drayton’s Wines and Mount Pleasant among others.

Two hours from Sydney

Destination NSW, the state tourism body, puts the Hunter Valley at just over two hours from Sydney and lists Pokolbin, Lovedale, Broke, Cessnock, Maitland, Morpeth, Rothbury, Singleton and Wollombi among its places to visit. It calls the Hunter one of the country’s pre-eminent wine destinations, with cellar doors “where the architecture almost outshines the wine”.