page_title: Hunter Valley wine
section_title: Wine industry
hierarchical_section_title: Hunter Valley wine / Wine industry
caption_attribution_description: An example of the Australian cellar door in the New South Wales Wine region of the Hunter Valley.
context_page_description: The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's best known wine regions. Located in the state of New South Wales, the region has played a pivotal role in the history of Australian wine as one of the first wine regions planted in the early 19th century. Hunter Valley Semillon is widely considered the iconic wine of the region but the Hunter produces wine from a variety of grapes including Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Verdelho.
  Under Australia's wine appellation system, the Hunter Valley zone Australian Geographical Indication covers the entire catchment of the Hunter River and its tributaries. Within that, the Hunter region is almost as large, and includes most of the wine-producing areas, excluding the metropolitan area of Newcastle and nearby coastal areas, some national parks, and any land that was in the Mudgee Shire. There are three named subregions in the Hunter region. These are the Upper Hunter Valley, Broke Fordwich and Pokolbin subregions. The Lower Hunter Valley is not strictly defined, but in general includes the Pokolbin subregion, along with the districts around Wollombi, Mount View, Cessnock and Lovedale.
context_section_description: The Hunter Valley wine industry is dominated by its proximity to Sydney. It has also become a significant element in the local economy in the tourism industry. The significance of tourism can be exemplified by the employment of more people in that industry than wine production. In 2008, a total of 4,469 ha (11,043 acres) of wine grapes were planted in the Hunter Valley with 1,687 ha (4,169 acres) dedicated to red grapes and 2,782 ha (6,874 acres) planted to white grapes. At harvest time, 9,263 tonnes of red wine varieties were crushed for an average of 5.5 tonnes/ha. Among white wine varieties, 19,310 tonnes were crushed with an average of 6.9 tonnes/ha. Around 28% of the red grapes and 63% of the white grapes crushed were from estate grown-fruit. Roughly a third of the red grapes and a fifth of the white grapes crushed were imported from outside the Hunter Valley. Many of these imported grapes come from other New South Wales Wine regions such as the Cowra, Mudgee, Orange and Riverina and are labelled under the large Southeast Australia designation.
  The wine laws for the Hunter Valley follow the same regulations as the rest of Australia, as governed by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. For a grape variety to appear on the wine label as a varietal wine it must account for at least 85% of the wine. If the wine is a multi-grape blend it must list the grapes on the wine in order of importance with the exact percentages of each grape listed somewhere on the wine. If the wine is labelled with a region then at least 85% of the grapes must be sourced from that area.
caption: A cellar door sign for a winery in the Hunter.
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