History in a glass

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s most historic – and interesting – wine regions, with roots that date back almost 190 years, writes Winsor Dobbin.

The first major grape plantings date back to 1825 when James Busby, widely considered the father of Australian wine, purchased land between the settlements of Branxton and Singleton and named it Kirkton after his Scottish birthplace.

Busby travelled extensively throughout Europe and South Africa, collecting cuttings from over 500 vineyards, including six of syrah (shiraz) from the Hermitage hill in the Rhone Valley.

Today, the most widely planted grape varieties in the Hunter are semillon, chardonnay and verdelho among the whites and shiraz among the reds with tiny plantings of cabernet sauvignon and “alternative varieties”.

Semillon is the iconic wine of the region, crisp and ultra-refreshing in its youth but a style that matures over decades into a honeyed wine with toasty/brioche notes. Young semillon is ideally suited to summer drinking and is a magnificent match for seafood; crisp, clean, low in alcohol, unwooded and deliciously dry. No wonder the style has been dubbed “semsational” by marketing types.

Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s greatest wine writers, has described Hunter semillon as “Australia’s great gift to the wine world” and the style has not been replicated anywhere else on the planet.

Hunter shiraz, meanwhile, is today almost always medium-bodied and clean as a whistle – although that has not always been the case.

“Shiraz was the red wine grape of the historic Hunter Valley where the wines were so strapping, and often so lacking in focus, that they inspired that memorable tasting term ‘sweaty saddle’,” Jancis Robinson once wrote. “And there are still bottles hidden in ancient cellars attesting to the staying power of the wines that were then called Hunter ‘Hermitage’.

It is true that Hunter shiraz (known as Hermitage or Burgundy until the 1970s) once suffered from a reputation for “funkiness” that a new generation of winemakers has addressed and rectified. Leading shiraz maker Andrew Thomas believes that a move away from big, alcoholic wines – as promoted by influential American wine critic Robert Parker – gives Hunter producers a chance to stake their claim as trendsetters.

“Fortunately, most consumers have now realised that those Aussie fruit bomb wines are not all they’re cracked up to be, are now looking for wines with more style and structure, and actively seeking out more medium-bodied wines,” Thomas says. “The Hunter Valley has certainly been a beneficiary of this change in consumer preference. Personally, I feel it’s a very exciting period to be a Hunter shiraz producer, and the wines we are producing (as a region) have never been better.

There is a renewed focus within the region to bottle wines from distinguished individual vineyard sites using an attention to detail, yet minimum interventionist approach. Our wines still display that uniquely regional medium-bodied, savoury structure, but with an amazing fruit-driven vibrancy and varietal purity.

“It’s true we do occasionally experience some challenging seasons with our weather, but when we get it right (which is certainly more often than not) our shiraz is absolutely world class.”

“The great opportunity for Hunter shiraz is that the consumer market is moving away from the big blockbuster reds and looking for wines with more finesse,” says Andrew Margan of Margan Family Wines.

“To drink wines with less tannins and more acidity, like in pinot noir, is a market trend and the Hunter Valley personifies this style of wine. We need to get Hunter wine back into people’s minds, and mouths, and make them realise medium-bodied wine is not a bad thing.”

 

Words: Winsor Dobbin