The most unique expression of Semillon
Hunter Valley is a winegrape growing zone that includes the region of Hunter and the sub-regions of Upper Hunter Valley, Broke Fordwich, and Pokolbin. It is north-west of the New South Wales city of Newcastle and has a warm and humid climate.
The GI is 19,578 km2 in size and has a total of 2,605 hectares of vineyards. The main varieties grown in the region are Shiraz, Semillon, Chardonnay, and Verdelho.
Hunter Valley Regional Snapshot 2023-24
Regional Snapshots are one-page profiles updated annually of individual Australian wine regions. They provide at-a-glance summary statistics on: climatic characteristics, viticulture data, winegrape production, and winegrape price and export sales data for wine, compared against the same statistics for the whole of Australia.
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Chardonnay
One of the first regions in Australia to grow Chardonnay, Hunter Valley Chardonnay helped to grow the variety into an Australian icon. Modern styles range from lean and mineral through to full flavoured, richer styles.
Semillon
A world benchmark wine, Hunter Valley Semillon is the stellar white variety in the region. Semillon is at its delicate best when picked early to make a wine of low alcohol and almost invariably has ripe flavours at low sugar concentrations. This is the style of wine that best responds to bottle age by developing lemon curd and toasty complexity, barely recognisable from its demure beginning.
Shiraz
Shiraz is undoubtedly the Hunter Valley’s outstanding red grape. The typical young Hunter Valley Shiraz is a medium bodied wine showing red and dark berries, spices and plenty of soft tannin. With bottle-age, it becomes much more complex, with earthy, leathery overtones and a beautiful perfume. It also acquires a silkiness and grace, becoming a smooth, wonderfully complex and richly flavoured wine.
- The Hunter Valley has a warm and humid climate
- There can be rain falls during harvest in some years
- Rain, humidity, cloud cover and gentle sea breezes mitigate the warmth
- Quite varied soils across the region
- Shiraz does best on friable red duplex and loam soils
- Semillon does best on the sandy alluvial flats