New England Wine Regions - Hastings Valley

The Hastings Valley region is located 390 kilometres north of Sydney, 557 kilometres south from Brisbane, around 230 kilometres south and east from Armidale.

Port Macquarie at the mouth of the Hastings River, now the largest centre with a population of over over 40,000, was founded in 1821 as a penal settlement. Wauchope, for long the Valley's main commercial centre, began as a timber centre and is the site of Timbertown, a major heritage attraction.

The first wines were planted in the 1860s. However, and as happened to the New England Tablelands' wine industry, wine production declined before re-emerging in recent years because of the influence of the Cassegrain family.

The family pioneered the use of the French hybrid and fungus resistant Chambourcin grape along Cabernet Frank, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonay, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Today the Valley has a number of vineyards.

The combination of quality wines, cellar door facilities, music events, good regional restraurants with surf and other coastal attractions are all building interest in the Hastings' wine industry. Wine Diva provides further information for those who are interested.

New England Wine Regions - New England Tablelands and Slopes

The second Regional New England Wine Show will be held at Glen Innes in the first week of October 2006. In addition to Tablelands' growers, winemakers from adjacent viticultural areas - Hastings, Northern Slopes outside New England, Western Plains and the Queensland Granite Belt will also be exhibiting.

While the New England Tablelands and adjacent slopes is today classified as a new wine producing region, it is in fact a re-emerging region with a long history.

In my post on New England Wine Regions - Hunter Valley I spoke of the role played by George Wyndham in establishing the Hunter Valley wine industry. I also mentioned that in 1831 he brought the 100,000 acre property "Bukkulla" near Inverell on the edge of the Northern Tablelands and there established another vineyard. Other settlers also planted vineyards and made their own wine.

By 1870 George had 10ha of vines bearing fruit which contributed to the total 11,000 gallons of Wyndham Estate wines being produced. By 1905, wine production from the Inverell area of New England was 227,000 litres from seven or eight larger vineyards and a number of smaller vineyards.

Between 1870 & 1920 wines from the area won many awards at wine shows in Sydney, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, Chicago & France. A prominent English wine judge of the time wrote of the Bukkulla wines, “(They) have a character and quality above the average of most wine-producing countries. The lowest quality is better than a large proportion of the ordinary wines of Europe, while the best would not suffer in comparison to the finest known growths”.

Thereafter wine production went into decline, re-emerging over the last ten years.

The New England Tablelands area is unlike any other grape growing region in Australia because of its diversity. Vineyards range from cool climate vineyards along the spine of the Great Dividing Range(a good number of vineyards are above a 1,000 metres) to the lower and warmer sites on the western edges of the New England Tablelands.

Wine Diva provides an excellent source of information for those wishing to find out more.

Snippets

One of my favourite blogs is Look and See. Produced by Gordon Smith, this is a pictorial blog of the landscape and life of rural Australia around Armidale.

Gordon tries to post a daily photograph. They are quite simply wonderful.

Byron Bay blog is another New England blog that I have just found. I have not properly explored this one yet, but it looks interesting.

The University of New England is presently carrying out a full strategic review.

Founded in 1938 as a college of Sydney University, the University is New England's oldest university. Details of the review can be found on here. The review is also being discussed on at least two blogs, Personal Reflections and The Ideal UNE.

New England Wine Regions - Hunter Valley

Located approximately 160 kilometers north of Sydney with a population of around 700,000, the Hunter Valley is New England's best known and Australia's oldest wine growing region.

In 183o George and Margaret Wyndham purchased "Annandale" in the Hunter Valley, renaming the property "Dalwood" and building Dalwood House as a home.

In 1828 George had planted his first grapes using 600 cuttings purchased from James Busby. Following the purchase he immediately made the first commercial planting of shiraz at "Dalwood". Then in 1831 he brought the 100,000 acre property "Bukkulla" near Inverell on the edge of the Northern Tablelands and there established another vineyard.

The first "Dalwood" vintage produced in 1831 was not a great success which due to the "extremely hot conditions promised to make good vinegar." Thereafter wine growing expanded rapidly. By 1860, Wyndham's total holdings were producing 11,000 gallons of wine.

The story of these early days can be found in The Generations of Men (Oxford University Press, 1955) by Judith Wright, one of Australia's best know writers and herself a member of New England's Wyndham/Wright pastoral dynasty. "Dalwood" itself is now the home of Wyndham Estate Wines.

The Hunter Valley offers great variety in scenery and activities.These range from the surfing beaches around Newcastle to the mountain country of the Barrington Tops to the Myall Lakes to the open rolling country of the Valley itself.

The Valley is relatively compact in geographic terms.This allows visitors to easily experience a range of scenery and activities. However, time needs to be allowed if you are to really enjoy the variety of wine tasting opportunities!

There are a number of wine growing areas within the Valley, with vineyards ranging from major commercial enterprises to small boutique operations. It's not really possible to visit them all, so you need to plan your trip.

There are many Hunter Valley web sites. One of the best from a wine and food viwepoint is http://www.winecountry.com.au/. Another general site is http://www.huntertourist.com.au/.
Many of the vineyards have their own sites as well.