Mudgee

Located on the Cudgegong River in Central NSW, the Mudgee region is best known for Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and Semillon. The town of Mudgee is 260 km (or a 3.5 hour drive) north-west of Sydney. The word Mudgee itself is a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘nest in the hills’, and the town certainly has a cosy, welcoming feel. Surrounded by its hills and vineyards, Mudgee district is an attractive location for wine tasting and exploring.

Mudgee, the largest town in the area, was first settled by Europeans in the 1820s, 12 years before Melbourne, making it the second oldest town west of the Great Dividing Range. The European settlers and Wiradjuri quickly came into conflict over land use and as a result martial law was declared in 1824, soon after the Wiradjuri population declined rapidly.

While Mudgee was surveyed for a village in 1823, Menah was the original settlement with its police station and lock up in 1833. But by 1838, it was the new township of Mudgee that was gazetted as “The Village of Mudgee”. Gold in the 1850s saw great increases in population that especially boosted such towns as Turon, Hill End and Gulgong in the area. At one point Mudgee had four coach factories operating to supply demand on the nearby goldfields.

Mudgee’s first commercial winery, Craigmoor, was established by German settlers in 1858, including the Roth, Kurtz and Bucholtz families whose descendants still live in the area, and was famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Despite being primarily a producer of red wines, Mudgee is also the cradle of a clone of Chardonnay that lay unrecognised for over 50 years. This clone some believe may be a descendant of the Chardonnay introduced to Australia in 1832 by James Busby.

Perhaps the most famous of Mudgee’s sons is Henry Lawson. Peter Larsen came as a gold miner and stayed to marry Louisa Albury in Mudgee in 1866. One of their children, Henry, grew up near Mudgee, becoming of course in later life one of Australia’s most well-known poets. Louisa Lawson was responsible for establishing the Eurunderee Public School Henry attended and featured in his poem "The Old Bark School".

The Mudgee area is made up of a network of several beautiful valleys that create the “nest” seen by Aboriginal people when they named the area. Though the slopes are gentle, many are frost-prone, making the positioning of vines problematic. Lying as it does on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range, Mudgee has a very different climate to the nearby Hunter. Rainfall and humidity are much lower, while the hours of sunshine hours are greater. Irrigation is a must and frosts in the spring and cold nights can delay growth. Both summer and autumn are very warm, which among other things causes the Mudgee harvest to be as much as four weeks later than that in the Hunter.

Mudgee is one of the State’s oldest wine regions, producing powerful reds that are European in their feel. The Mudgee region's many winemakers are mostly boutique in nature, which means most of the region’s labels won’t appear in your local bottle shop. Winemakers, include several organic producers, such as Thistle Hill. Thistle Hill Vineyard is a family-owned vineyard and winery found in the beautiful Erudgere valley just 10 kilometres from Mudgee. The Robertson’s of Thistle Hill are strong advocates for sustainable farming and use no insecticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilisers on their 27-acre vineyard. As a result, Thistle Hill has been classified as organic by NASAA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia) since 1993.

There are numerous cellar doors in the region, with the most prominent being Simon Gilbert, Poet’s Corner and Andrew Harris as well as smaller family-owned operations such as Lowe Family Wines, and Logan Wines. De Beaurepaire Wines has a tasting room in a beautifully restored sandstone building in the main street of Rylstone. Also, Frog Rock in Edgell Lane, off Ulan Rd, Mudgee, is a family owned company, established since 1970.

Local foods to enjoy include beef, hazelnuts, honey, sheep and goat cheeses, yabbies, lamb, verjuice, olive oil, tapenades and olive oil products. Along with these are such local attractions as the Gulgong Pioneer Museum, Goulburn River and Wollemi National Parks, the Turon River, and the historic gold mining towns of Sofala and Hill End. At the peak of the gold rush era, Hill End was one of the largest settlements in NSW with 28 hotels. Today, its museum helps visitors catch a glimpse of this gold related past as does Craigmoor House, an historic gold rush home unaltered since the 1870's. Another of the regions towns worth a visit is Rylstone, which is very near Dunn's Swamp, a large waterway with good canoeing and camping within the Wollemi National Park.

A number of food and wine events are to be had, such as the Mudgee Wine Celebration, and Go Grazing, also in Mudgee, and the Wine and Olive Celebration Dinner, in Rylstone; all in September. The Mudgee Show, held in March each year, features rodeos, camel races, woodchopping, horse riding, fireworks, and much more. Also in March is the Mudfest, Mudgee’s short film festival held in the open-air on the front lawns of the Elliot Rock Estate, one of the regions most beautiful wineries. And on the Sunday following Mudfest comes the Footcrush Feast at the Robert Stein Vineyard, which includes a banquet of local produce, vineyard walks, wine tasting and even a genuine grape footcrush out of which participants will receive their very own bottle of wine!

Chardonnay is the major white from this region of reds, producing a consistently good wine. These wines are best in the second and third year but often go on to develop a rich style over a longer period. The Semillon of Mudgee suffers from nearness to its more famous Hunter rival despite their similarity, including a superb ageing ability for up to 20 years.