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Two hours north of Sydney, the Hunter Valley sits in a broad basin of low hills and red volcanic soils that have been producing wine commercially since the 1820s, making it one of the oldest wine regions in the southern hemisphere. The Brokenback Range forms a rough western boundary, and the valley floor is threaded with cellar doors, heritage homesteads, and rows of vines that shift colour dramatically between the gold of autumn and the deep green of summer. It is a place that rewards slow travel, where the point is not to cover ground but to stay in it.

Semillon is the grape that defines the Hunter Valley in a way that no other Australian region can claim. Grown in the valley's warm, humid conditions and bottled young, it starts life as a lean, almost austere white wine and transforms over a decade or more into something honeyed and complex. Shiraz is the other pillar, producing wines with a particular earthiness that distinguishes them from the peppery styles of cooler southern regions. Understanding these two varieties is essentially understanding the valley's identity.