My final blog recording the visits I made during my study trip in January 2024.
Bob Lusby was a surgeon in Sydney (like Max Lake, who he knew), and he and his wife’s families had wine in their blood. In the 1990s they bought land in Pokolbin and created the Tintilla winery (Tintilla is a word used by Samuel Pepys as an alternative to claret) and olive grove. Bob is also a keen historian and commentator on the Hunter Valley and I had a wonderful morning with him discussing what I had learnt, with Bob kindly putting me right on misconceptions and adding to my knowledge. He believes what defined the early pioneers of vine growing and winemaking in Australia was the scientific approach – without a legacy of historic vineyard and winemaking practices they had to study and experiment, and certainly within the Hunter Valley winemaking community there is today a collegiate co-operative approach (some of it I have learned involving drinking beer!).
Bob’s son James (an award-winning winemaker) was busy in the winery, but helpfully shared samples of various Semillon fermentations, demonstrating the huge impact different yeasts have on the same base must. And the comparison of the 2022 and 2016 Tintilla Semillons neatly summed up the wonderful evolution of flavour and texture that Semillon undergoes. The younger vintage had pretty blossom, lemon and lime flavours and a sense of richness, while the 2016 had smoke, lanolin, rich texture and even a (pleasant!) cheese character. I also loved Bob’s Vincento, a fortified Semillon kept in a solera system, and have brought a bottle home.
After I left Bob I headed north in search of the origins of vineyards in the Hunter Valley. I didn’t manage to find Kirkton, where James Busby (who brought cuttings of European grape vines to Australia in the 1830s) was granted land, though PJ Charteris (see below) later told me how to get there. I did visit Dalwood, planted in 1830 by George Wyndham, with vines still grown there today. The vineyard and buildings still exist, and harvest was in progress. Bryan Currie, the winemaker, explained that their tasting room is in Pokolbin and that the grand buildings on the site are now used for private events like weddings. However, he was happy for me to walk round the Heritage Trail, provided I shut gates behind me and watched out for snakes. So I was able, finally, to stand on the banks of the Hunter River – something of an anticlimax, I’m afraid, it was much smaller than I was expecting, presumably because it is a relatively dry year. I had learnt that a key advantage for the Hunter Valley is the large catchment area of the river upstream and long standing permissions for vineyards (and other local water users) to draw water for irrigation.
My walk took me past harvested vines, some very curious cows, a small cemetery and the original Dalwood residence, which I am glad I didn’t have to live in. No snakes luckily. Dalwood’s proximity to the river meant it was historically prone to flooding, so in the latter part of the 19th Century the centre of winemaking moved south to Pokolbin.
In my final couple of days I made a some visits arranged at short notice to ‘leads’ that previous ‘informants’ had given me. PJ Charteris, the kiwi half of a New Zealand/Australian wine making couple (they met at Brokenwood), is based in the Hunter Valley but also makes wine in Central Otago. He gave me some great detail about both regions, and his wines were lovely. At First Creek I marvelled at the huge barrel hall (they make wine under contract and are pretty much the main bottler in the Hunter Valley) while trying their fantastic Chardonnays – despite it now being the most widely planted grape variety I had hardly drunk any during my visit (though I have come home with a Tyrrell’s Vat 47 that they kindly gave me). At Peterson House I explored fizz, their speciality, and learnt there is such a thing as a bubbleologist! And I dropped into Tullochs, thus nearly completing my tally of surviving wineries from the 19th Century (I didn’t make it to Draytons). Their story is interesting – the land (with a few vines) was given to JY Tulloch in lieu of debt in 1893 and by the 1920s they were the largest producer in the Hunter Valley. The business was sold in the 1960s and passed between a number of corporations including Penfolds/Southcorp. When big corporate lost interest in the Hunter Valley in the early part of the 21st Century the family bought it back, and Christina, fourth generation, manages it today. A good illustration of the rollercoaster history of the Hunter Valley.
So what are my reflections about the Hunter Valley? Well, I still have to write my 1,000 word report to submit to my sponsors, but I think I am broadly getting my head around the place. It has a hugely rich living history – you can see 100 year old vines and drink wine made from their grapes, and meet the descendants of the people who planted them.
It is ‘current’ – providing a ‘playground’ for the urbanites who live within a couple of hours drive, although some of the people I met feel it is too dependent on this local customer base, and its wines should be better known more widely sought after in the rest of Australia, and the rest of the world.
Most importantly I think it has a great future. While the wine market is turning down, the type of wine the Hunter Valley makes: high quality, lighter in body, lower in alcohol, with great freshness and elegance, is (or will be) a thriving part of the wine market. I think its access to water is crucial, a huge advantage compared to the bulk wine producing areas of the Murray Darling Basin, and even to parts of South Australia dependent on conserving water. While climate change will of course create even more extremes of temperature, humidity and inundations, the whole culture of vine growing and wine making is already adapted to such variable conditions.
Not least thanks to the generosity of my hosts with their time and the wines they shared, I know I’m biased. I will certainly play my part as best as I can to help others share my love! We are starting to look at Tim running a Hunter Valley tour – perhaps even in the year of the 200th anniversary of this wonderful place.
Watch out for our programme of tours for 2028!