Hunting Valley: The Napa of Australia

Let’s say you’re up for a trip to wine country, and you’re thinking you’ll go to the quintessential wine growing region, the Napa Valley. But then you think about it for a minute and realize that such a trip would not be convenient, because you’re not in California -- you’re in New South Wales. Australia. You know you’re near great wine country, and you still want to satisfy that tasting-day urge, but you don’t know where to start. What’s a wine lover to do?

One answer is to head north to the Hunter Valley. While Australia enjoys several gorgeous wine regions, the Lower Hunter Valley, and its smaller sibling, the Upper Hunter Valley, located within a few hours’ drive of Sydney, boast some of the grandest wineries in the country. Now, this is not to say that the wines from this region are the best, or even that the Hunter region is the most prolific producer (that honor goes to the neighboring state of South Australia). But there’s plenty to see, and you’ll definitely enjoy a bona fide wine country experience.

With a humid, subtropical climate, the Hunter Valley is not the most intuitive environment for grape growing. However, it enjoys the distinction of having been one of the earliest planted vine areas in Australia, with British settlers planting a variety of familiar vines in the late 18th and early 19th century. Ultimately, they found a few French grapes, such as syrah (shiraz), chardonnay and Semillon, that didn’t wither and die, and today, the Hunters enjoy some of the oldest vineyards in the country. The Lower Hunter was the first planted, and its Semillon has been described as crisp and delicate when young, with enough legs to mature into a more complex, richer wine with some (5 to 10 years or more) age.

Wine critics sometimes like to comment that shiraz from the Hunter Valley, particularly the Lower Hunter, tends to take on a “sun baked” quality. This is probably the reason so much of it is used for blending, rather than single label designation, and you’re less likely to find “Lower Hunter Valley” explicitly stated on a wine label than say, Barossa Valley or McClaren Vale. However, there are still plenty of gorgeous wineries to visit during a trip up there, and plenty of admirable wines to taste.