Hunter Valley - History to High Jinks, Wine Blast podcast S6 E2 with Susie and Peter

A hop, skip and jump away from Sydney, the Hunter Valley is renowned as the birthplace of Australian wine. And yet this is far from ideal wine territory: hot, sticky, often stormy.

So how did this tiny wine region come to play such an outsize role in Ozzie wine’s history and evolution?

Join us to find out why as we chew the cud with Hunter legend Bruce Tyrrell (sample quote: ‘I’m the luckiest man in the wine industry’) and winemaker Xanthe Hatcher (‘The Hunter’s a region of extremes…’)

We touch on everything from French pick-pockets to oysters and, ‘oblivion for a dollar fifty’.

We explore how Hunter Semillon became an idiosyncratic global classic whose naturally low alcohol, refreshing, distinctive and food-friendly style paradoxically mean it’s well suited to the wine drinkers of today.

(But it wasn’t always going to be this way – at one stage the wines had enough acidity, ‘to take the enamel off your teeth!’)

And we also look beyond Semillon to other Hunter staples like Chardonnay and Shiraz as well as future bets like Fiano.

Thanks to the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and Wine Australia for sponsoring this episode. As ever, all opinions and recommendations are entirely our own. And thanks to you for tuning in!

Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2017, Hunter Valley, 11%
Gundog The Chase Semillon 2015, Hunter Valley, 10.5%
Tyrrell’s Winemaker’s Selection Vat 1 Semillon 2017, Hunter Valley, 11.5%
Audrey Wilkinson Winemaker’s Selection Chardonnay 2022, Hunter Valley, 12%
Vinden ‘Headcase’ Somerset Vineyard Chardonnay 2022, Hunter Valley, 12.5%
Briar Ridge Limited Release Fiano 2022, Hunter Valley, 12.3%
Brokenwood Shiraz 2021, Hunter Valley, 13.5%