CESSNOCK, Australia (dpa) – The Hunter Valley does not look like a wine-growing region to European eyes: it is a flat, coastal region, and one of Australia’s largest coal-producing areas. Yet dozens of different types of wine grapes are grown in the valley of the Hunter River, and increasingly Hunter Valley wines are being exported to Europe.
It is a two-hour drive from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, which stretches 160 kilometres inland from Newcastle on the Pacific coast. The coastal motorway ends in Maitland, and continues as a state highway.Later comes a last chain of hills before the land again sinks into the broad valley with lush green meadows and small patches of forest. The vines here are grown in long rows on fields.Just 200 years ago the Hunter Valley was still an impenetrable wilderness.In 1792 a British lieutenant, searching the valley for escaped convicts, came across a black stone – coal. This was the start of a mining and lumber industry, but farmers also settled on the fertile banks of the Hunter River.In 1830 a Scotsman, James Busby, brought the first vines from Britain. It was hoped that wine would provide a healthier alternative to “devil’s” rum, which at that time was the favourite drink of the pioneers in New South Wales.Word soon spread that the red earth here produced excellent wine harvests and throughout the 19th century dozens of vintners settled in the region.Today Hunter Valley is home to at least 70 vineyards, especially in the Prokolbin region northwest of Cessnock, the largest town in the region.As well as names from the pioneering era such as Lindemans, McWilliams and Wyndhams, there are newer names such as Birnbadgen or Rothbury Estate. All of these operators offer visitors wine tastings and tours of their vineyards.“Semillon and chardonnay are most commonly grown here,” said Martin Lorenzen of Mount Pleasant Winery, one of the largest and oldest in the valley. But other white wines such as sauvignon blanc, verdelho and gewuerztraminer are also grown.The most common red wine grape grown here is shiraz, also known in Europe as syrah. For the export market this heavy red wine is often blended with the lighter cabernet sauvignon, which also grows well here.As is typical of real Australians, the vintners here have developed their European inheritance both unconventionally and practically to suit their climate and conditions. They produce a sparkling red wine.“We serve it ice cold on hot days,” said Wolfgang Grimm, a native Australian who was a hotel manager in Sydney before fulfilling a lifelong dream a few years ago buying a vineyard in Hunter Valley.Now “Grimm’s Domain” offers holiday apartments for visitors, like many vintners in the main wine region of Prokolbin. The holiday homes are usually built of wood and surrounded by broad verandas directly overlooking the vines.But there are also many resorts and hotels in the region.Inhabitants of Sydney often come to Hunter Valley for weekends, to taste the wines, ride horseback or simply to picnic.There are many natural parks surrounding the valley. In Waragan State Forest there are cedars, tree ferns and many other plants that give an impression of the original forests of Australia.Small towns are also profiting from budding tourism in the region. They are a reminder of the coalmining past which is now centred in the north of Hunter Valley. In Kitchener, near Cessnock, a large winding tower rises over an old mine workings, which has now been converted into a museum.But the most idyllic settlement is Morpeth.If it were not for the cars, it would be easy to imagine yourself transported back to the 1930s: the main street is lined with sandstone villas and wooden houses with gables and bay windows. Behind it the Hunter River winds through the green meadows.In an antique shop here we found a framed quotation by the father of wine-growing in Hunter Valley James Busby: “The man who can sit in the shadow of his own vine without experiencing the greatest sense of joy, is a man who does not know the meaning of the word happiness.”www.hunter-region.org.au
