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One of Australia’s best-known wine-producing regions located in the state of New South Wales, about 100 miles north of Sydney. It’s also one of the oldest, with its first vineyards planted in the early 1800s. Although the outside world knows only of Hunter Valley, winemakers in the area distinguish between the Upper Hunter Valley and the Lower Hunter Valley. The Lower Hunter Valley, which starts around Cessnock in the south and goes toward Branxton in the north, is the older of the two regions and the one most associated with the name. The Upper Hunter Valley, which lies to the northwest of the lower valley near the towns of Denman, Muswellbrook, and Scone, was firmly established in the 1960s when the prestigious wine company Penfolds invested in this area. The Penfolds venture was not successful primarily because of their focus on red wine grapes, which don’t grow well here. Rosemount, which purchased the Penfolds property, shifted to white-grape varieties and has been reasonably successful. The grape-growing environment of the Hunter Valley is not the easiest—its soil isn’t the best, the weather can be extremely hot, there are often drought conditions, and when it does rain it is often at the most inappropriate time, such as during harvest. Yet the Hunter Valley is known for its unique long-lived Sémillon wines, its lush chardonnays, and its long-aging shiraz (Syrah). Chardonnay has passed Sémillon as the most widely planted white variety in Hunter Valley (primarily because of the large acreage devoted to it in the Upper Hunter Valley), and bringing up the rear is Verdelho. The most popular red grape is shiraz (Syrah), formerly called Hermitage here, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.