Hunter Valley

On the way to the Hunter you might want to drop in to Old Sydney Town or Lake Macquarie (one of the few places that has always rewarded me with a fish). Apart from the wineries, the Hunter is a bit like the Southern Highlands - rich, green and pretty. Beyond the white fence of a horse-breeding stud, you may see kangaroos loping in the distance.

In the lower Hunter (around pretty Pokolbin Village) are about fifty wineries - most of them welcome visitors and some offer guided tours. The Hunter Vintage Festival is held during harvest period (January to March) and the annual Wine and Food Affair is held in September.

The Hunter vines started producing grapes in the mid 1800s, about the same time as the Barossa Valley but, unlike their German counterparts, the first wine was made more for tippling than taste. It was produced as an alternative to rum, which had a tendency to bring out the aggressive side of some people and, for a time, was illicit.

The Valley is home to large and boutique wineries, and produces fine wines from light whites to heavy reds. It's an informal, relaxed place where the people are casual and welcoming.

Here’s a thumbnail guide to a few of the Hunter wineries.

• Drayton’s Family Wines has been family-owned and run for 140 years. The winery includes an outside barbecue area and a playground for children.
• Lindemans Wines, one of the founding wineries of the Hunter, has tastings in its original stone-walled cellar.
• McWilliams Mount Pleasant Estate was founded in 1921 by Maurice O’Shea, regarded as one of Australia’s greatest winemakers. The winery has a tasting room, bar and lounge overlooking the vineyards.
• Petersons Champagne House specialises in methode champenoise sparkling white and reds.
• Pokolbin Estate is one of the smallest old wineries with its tasting room in a 100-year-old sandstone cottage.
• Reg Drayton Winery has one of the few female winemakers in Australia. It also has spectacular mountain views.
• Rothbury Estate, though relatively new, is one of the best known in the Hunter thanks to founder and bon vivant, Len Evans.
• Tulloch Wines was established in 1895. A vintage delivery truck, which still runs, sits outside the tasting room.
• Tyrell’s Vineyards tasting room is lined with 100-year-old wine vats. Visitors are welcome to enjoy a picnic lunch among the vines.
• Wyndham Estate has been making wine on the same site for 170 years. There’s a licensed restaurant and a barbecue area.

Apart from the wine area, the Hunter extends to the wilderness of World Heritage rainforest at Barrington Tops, the city of Newcastle and the coastal region of Port Stephens with its blue, calm waters, sandy beaches and resident dolphins.

Newcastle is a place I really like but it’s a strange city/town with many contradictions. It’s a compact city with a country community feel, even though it’s on the coast. It’s industrial but sunny and welcoming. It ‘soft and family’ but there’s also an ‘edge’. Yuppies sit in trendy al fresco cafes next to the homeless asking for money. Laughing teenage girls with braces may skip past a girl, pushing seventeen, pushing a pram, nerdy teen boys attract pretty girlfriends and other youths with tattoos and attitude cruise about in souped up cars as ‘Normies’ have done up Hunter Street since the 1960s. It’s classy, but rough, shiny but old.

The Art Gallery is smart and contemporary and Fort Scratchley sits sombre and strong, with its tunnels and guns, above the harbour and Nobby’s Beach. Down on Nobby’s, toddlers paddle between the flags while, off shore, ubiquitous tankers bob and wait their turn to dock.

Newcastle is Australia’s second oldest city and was founded as a penal colony in 1804 after Lieutenant John Shortland discovered the Hunter River and coal in 1797. Labour was needed to mine the country’s first export, hence the convicts.

The convicts were also used by Major John Morisset (c1820) to cut him his own personal ‘Commandant’s Baths’ on a rock platform. Known as Bogey Hole, it was extended and became swimming baths in 1863 with men’s and women’s designated days. It’s still a nice, safe spot for a swim to the sound of surf crashing on the rocks.

More Information

For more information about New South Wales:

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