Planning a wine tasting trip to the Hunter, Australia's oldest winemaking region?
You'll know what to expect, right?
There'll be zesty semillon, medium-bodied shiraz, some excellent chardonnay and fruity verdelho.
After that there will be the Mediterranean varieties that have really taken to the Hunter climate: fiano and vermentino in the whites, and some arneis if you go searching. In the reds you can tick off tempranillo, sangiovese and barbera - all delicious - with the Portuguese variety touriga nacional also showing tremendous promise.
But for a winemaking region that takes understandable pride in its history and its multi-generational winemaking families, there's also no shortage of winemakers who are pushing the boundaries both with the use of grape varieties and some adventurous techniques in the winery.
Here's just a handful to consider
Comyns and Co
Scott Comyns is quietly spoken, but he's sticking to his guns. "I still believe it's the only one in Australia," he says. He's referring to his highly unusual - and downright tasty - sparkling wine, made from Gruner Veltliner ($35), a white grape variety best associated with Austria and, to a lesser extent, Hungary. Traditionally it produces a crisp, zesty table wine with lime and grapefruit flavours and hallmark acidic freshness.
"There's one gruner vineyard in the Hunter and fortunately I was able to talk Lisa McGuigan into letting me have some fruit," he says. "I wanted to make a sparkling wine, but I wanted it to be different to the other sparkling wines going around. So I knew straight away that gruner fruit would be ideal.
"I've made it for three years now and as long as I can continue to get the fruit, I'll keep it going because it has been really popular at the cellar door. It has pear flavours, is fresh in the mouth with tangy acid to finish. It's just a really good, easy drinking sparkling."
Another quirky one: Comyns also does a white blend known as Mrs White ($28). The current vintage has gewurztraminer, semillon, viognier and gruner blended together. "There's no rules, the blend can change from year to year. It just has to taste good. I might throw some riesling in next year. We'll see."
Horner Wines
You heard of picpoul? If the answer is yes, you're officially a wine tragic. It's a white wine variety of southern France, renowned for its acidity - Picpoul loosely translates to "lip stinger".
"There are only two picpoul vineyards in Australia," winemaker Ash Horner says. "Coriole in McLaren Vale, and Windowrie in the Central Ranges, and that's where we get our fruit from."
"My wife Lauren and I like to do it a bit differently," Horner admits. "We want our cellar door to be a friendly place where people can taste some good wine but also some unusual wine. I don't make my picpoul the same way they do in France. I'm after a more textural wine, so play around with it a bit more in the winery and we use a blend of new and old Hungarian oak.
"It's a citrussy wine, still with that vibrant acid, with a slight creamy note on the tongue. It's a good food wine - they call it the oyster wine in France. But personally, I reckon you can't go past drinking it with a good roast chicken."
Another quirky one: "I have a shiraz that I've blended with marsanne that is in the barrel and will be released next year. It's pretty unusual. I also have a fortified - my version of a pineau, although we'll have to come up with a new name or the French will get upset. It's a blend of brandy and viognier. I have a red version too where I've blended brandy with shiraz. They'll be ready next year too."
Binet Family Wine
Field blends - a mixture of maybe three or four grape varieties into one tasty new wine - is becoming increasingly popular in the Hunter. It gives wineries the chance to offer something unique that is value added on their portfolio. At the same time it gives winemakers the opportunity to let their creative juices flow.
Daniel Binet has been at the forefront of that at Domaine De Binet, always willing to experiment.
"My white blend is a bit of fun as the name suggests ... it's called Le Crazy Coq ($28)," he says. "I've been doing it for a few years now and it has easily become my biggest selling white. It has gone past semillon and verdelho. It's a mix of semillon, riesling, arneis and gewurztraminer. I'm not trying to show the semillon as semillon, or the riesling as riesling, but part of the whole with genuine complexity.
"I'm after a fresh, zingy, citrussy wine that's vibrant and clean. I want it to be quirky for sure, but at the same time it has to be a serious wine with ageability. A wine you're happy to pull out at any time, no matter the occasion."
He does a red blend, too, called The Accidental Tourist ($30). It's a blend of barbera, dolcetto, shiraz and a splash of black muscat. "You can serve it slightly chilled. It's my answer to shiraz pinot - slightly lighter than shiraz, but again, a serious wine with good berry flavours."
Hart & Hunter
If you're talking serious wine, this one is right up there. It's Hart & Hunter's pHat range, specifically their shiraz ($75). This is a single vineyard wine, but is multi vintage - some of the best fruit from four vintages blended together. The current wine has fruit from the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 vintages.
"We're trying to offer people a full expression of the vineyard site," owner and winemaker Damien Stevens says. "The blending brings a natural complexity to what is already a high quality shiraz site."
Such is their commitment to the wine, it has meant holding back some of the best barrels from what have been some outstanding vintages - a bold move, perhaps even a touch masochistic, considering the 2017 and 2018 vintages in particular were absolute beauties in the Hunter.
"It wasn't easy, especially when the bills come in and we're a small, family operation," Jodie Stevens says with a smile. "But we're really pleased with the end result."
Another quirky one: They too have been active with field blends. Their white is called Ciccia Blanco ($35) and is a blend of semillon, gruner veltliner and riesling, and the red Ciccio Rosso ($42) - both are designed for immediate drinking and are highly moreish.
Whispering Brook
For the last decade Whispering Brook has been pushing Portuguese varietals with the red grape touriga nacional a star. Now they've added a white, arinta ($40), that's as unusual as it is more-ish.
"This is only our second vintage but it has been amazingly well received, so we're going to plant some more," co-owner and winemaker Susan Frazier says. "It thrives in a warm climate and sandy soils, which makes it a good fit in the Hunter. It grows in huge bunches, much bigger than our usual grape varieties. The pickers love it."
Susan best likens arinta to riesling - "it has that fresh, limey, grapefruit character" - and suspects it will age well. "We're going to go back to Portugal to taste some older ones and see how they develop over time. We're still learning about it."
The wine is probably more textural than riesling, with a creaminess on the tongue, and a richer, rounder flavour profile. It sits somewhere between riesling and chardonnay - a rather appealing place all of its own.
Another quirky one: The Mosaic red blend is where Portugal meets the Hunter - the unusual blend of touriga nacional, tinta cao, tinto roriz, sousao and shiraz. Again, it's different but hits that easy drinking red zone. And by the way, Whispering Brook have just re-released their original touriga nacional - the 2011 vintage ($85), now with 11 years of age. It's sensational - smack bang in the sweet spot.
M&J Becker
A wine that, for all intents and purposes, could have been made hundreds of years ago. Got your interest?
James Becker is committed to environmentally sustainable wine, holistic vineyard practices and as little manipulation in the winery as possible. He wants his wines - both at his own label and at Oakvale where he is winemaker - to be as natural as possible.
So, say hello to his Petillant Naturel ($40) sparkling wine.
"The techniques used predate modern winemaking," Becker says. "It means it's a cloudy wine - and let's be honest, they're not going to be for everyone. I don't disgorge it or add acid, no yeast, no egg white fining ... anything like that.
"The aim is to get a wine in the glass that is as natural as you can get, with minimal winemaking input. Letting nature do its thing. It's a blend of the classic sparkling varieties, chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. It's a bit funky, but there's no doubt it's tasty. We've been making it since 2011 and since 2017 we've exported it annually to the United States."
Another quirky one: There are some creative red blends out there, but this one - simply called Red ($35) - is right up there. It's a blend of pinot noir, brachetto and syrah. Brachetto, you ask? "It's an Italian variety from the north west, around Piedmont. It's very aromatic, with rose petal and wild strawberry flavours, and mild spice. It can be served slightly chilled. We sold out of the last vintage in no time and will have the new vintage out shortly."
So, there are many words to describe the Hunter wine scene - but boring, predictable and unimaginative certainly aren't among them.
