As the smaller, higher altitude sibling to the Hunter valley with an old town feel, Mudgee made such an impression on us we visited twice. In a month.
The 3 ½ drive North west of Sydney takes you through the beautiful Blue Mountains National Park and offers a scenic coffee pitstop in the ever touristy Katoomba or Leura. An alternative route, recommended by some friends, a few miles north takes you through an area called Bilpin known as the ‘Land of the Mountain Apple’. Unsurprisingly you’ll find apples in all forms and guises here: pies, juice, cider, cakes and many others. We stopped off at the general store for a warm apple pie with a sweet shortcrust pastry making for a highly nutritious lunch washed down with a local cider tasting.
Within Mudgee town there are multiple motels and hotels, our choice was the Perry St Hotel built in the 1800’s which has served as a mechanics institute and dance hall over the years but has recently been renovated into a beautiful boutique hotel 5-10 minutes from the main street. When staying in Mudgee itself there are a couple of eateries namely the Roth’s wine bar with a wood fired pizza oven and extensive local wine list which provides a good opportunity to sample the local produce. Elton’s, housed in an old pharmacy, serves more bistro type food with a wine list also choc-a-block with local bottles. Alby and Esters is a welcoming morning after wine tasting sat in their sun trap of a courtyard eating some great pastries with a decent mug of coffee. For trip two we opted to stay at the Peppertree Hill Cottages, owned by the same group as the Perry St Hotel, and located a 20 minute drive out of town. Surrounded by vineyards and farmland, they have a much more secluded feel with a wood burner and warm blankets to get you through the cold Mudgee nights.
With the exception of a couple of wineries, most of the following are all easily accessible via pedal power, our main mode of transport in Mudgee. Quiet roads and good signage made it easy to navigate between the wineries, even after a couple of tastings. We brought our own bikes though there are a couple of rental options in the area as well.
Now for the wineries. Forty minutes outside of Mudgee and a short detour off the main road, De Beaurepaire wines is located somewhat out on a limb. Driving along the seemingly never-ending dirt track with no other wineries close by, its geographical position soon becomes clear on arrival. The vines are located over limestone soil as opposed to the volcanic soils found in most of the other vineyards in the region. This creates high night/day temperature variation as limestone does not retain heat and therefore reduces the average growing season temperature similar to the soils found in the great growing regions of Burgundy, Champagne and parts of Bordeaux. As a result, their reds have beautiful complexity with bright acidity and balanced tannin. Their sparkling is bone dry with prominent toasty notes from a long time left on lees.
Also on the way into Mudgee, Logan Wines is exceedingly seductive with a modern airy architectural cellar door set overlooking the vines. We were led into a large outdoor terrace with floor to ceiling windows to enjoy their varied selection of wines. Their winemaking style characterises the cooler climates of Mudgee and Orange with a fun twist. Of the various ranges on offer from their experimental to slightly more traditional styles we bought their Weemala Pinot Gris and Clementine Pinot blend. The Pinot Gris has notable acidic backbone with enough ripe fruit to fill out the body of the wine. The pinot noir blend is a funky mix of pinot gris, pinot noir and pinot meunier with the pinot gris fermented on skins. Dark pink in colour, high acidity with unripe fruit flavours and gentle tannin, it firmly falls into smashy smashy juice* territory to be enjoyed chilled on a sunny day sat on a beach.
There are a plethora of vineyards northeast of Mudgee we did our best to battle through. It was a tough old job. On your way out of town it is hard not to miss Gilberts winery, a large building with a mixture of sandstone and dark wood which gives a sense of grandeur and tradition with wines to match. I was not completely blown away by all the wines, however it was 10am the morning after a long day of wine tasting. The Orange (location, not wine style) Barrel Select Pinot Noir is a lovely grown up sip. Aged in new oak, it is a bigger expression of many light pinots out there with more savoury and ripe dark fruit notes while remaining balanced. Gilberts also serve a selection of sharing plates to be enjoyed in their sheltered outdoor garden. A separate part of the building houses High Valley Cheese Co. specialising in younger style cheeses. Highlights included an artery clogging rich creamy brie and their selection of marinated fetas ( we only discovered this oily, creamy invention since moving to Australia) which can be found as part of many a cheese board around the region.
Two vineyards doing something a bit different are Vinifera and Di Lusso the prior specialising in Spanish varietals and the latter in Italian.
Vinifera, run by a retired rural doctor, is a small organic certified winery with some excellent produce. A small tasting room with outdoor seating next to the vines and attached distillery is a great way to while away an hour… or two. We ended up walking away a couple of bottles of wine heavier. A favourite was the Graciano (Grenache en francais), a big wine with rich dark fruits and typically high alcohol content for the varietal at 14.5%. I look forward to opening this with some sort of wintery stew if it ever becomes cold enough to justify making one.
Di Lusso, appears to be owned by an imitation Uncle Henry from ‘A Good Year’. If you’ve seen it , you will know, if you haven’t seen it – watch it! The cellar door set in a beautiful garden with indoor and outdoor seating and serves some very tasty food. During the week is the ‘Cucina’ menu is paired back and rustic, reminiscent of evenings sat in the Italian countryside being fed to bursting by an Italian Nonna. At the weekend they light up the wood fired pizza oven and serve some very attractive looking pizzas, while expanding their menu to more trattoria style. The wines here were good but not quite stand out for the area. We did end up buying a 2018 Nebbiolo, typically light coloured and very high tannins with bright young acidity. The winemaker was fully open that this will need to lie down for a few years so it is goodbye to this guy for now to say hello around 2023.
A little further up the road is Lowe Family estate. David Lowe, the winemaker, is a master at his craft and produces a wide variety of wines from mid-week drinkers to some single vineyard weekend thinkers alongside some interesting lower intervention creations. We were greeted at the cellar door with a glass of sparkling rosé to start the tasting and were shown to our table in the beautifully manicured outdoor seating area. Alongside their tasting was the option for a pick n mix food board with locally sourced cheeses, charcuterie and dips from their extensive veggie garden which also supplies restaurant the Zin House (more on that later). The tasting was good with some crowd-pleasing favourites to start, a fantastic preservative free shiraz, and a full bodied premium zinfandel with buckets of dark fruit. The lighter, brighter preservative free shiraz was a winner for us as a nice departure from the big Aussie styles we see so often. The Zin House restaurant sits behind the cellar door and next to the Zinfandel vines after which it is named. Their vegetable heavy and locally sourced menu was excellently executed. Interestingly, the Zin House offered a few exceptional wines made on the Lowe estate that did not make into their cellar door tasting nor were available to buy. An example was the Zin by Zin, an organic and biodynamic lighter style Zinfandel we enjoyed with our meal. No matter how much begging I did they would not sell me a bottle to take away.
Last but not least for this area of Mudgee was Robert Stein, which offer a wide range of wines, though their award winning Riesling was the reason we visited. Riesling is a wonderfully versatile grape variety from bone dry lemon lime to sweet desert wines and everything in between. The aromatics and high acid allow it to be aged for many years with bottles often developing an instantly recognisable petrol/kerosene note to it… in a good way, a very good way. Robert Stein makes them all – bone dry, off dry and has a collection of aged Rieslings, including a 2011 reserve which we purchased. They also have a restaurant, The Pipeclay Pumphouse, serving a more meat focussed menu. Arrive hungry – their tasting menu was a hearty affair. Interestingly, Robert Stein offered their entire collection of wines on the menu at cellar door prices. Well and truly suckered in to this we ordered a 2006 museum collection Riesling. Its long aging created a straw tinge where the acidity had mellowed and accentuated the aromatics giving body and complexity creating a very grown up drink to remember.
Back down through Mudgee and out the other side heading west on the way to the Observatory lies Thistle Hill. Recommended to us on our first trip to Mudgee, we thought we would cycle the 40km roundtrip from our accommodation to check it out. We were greeted by a bloke in his late thirties and a small cellar door with a few tables sat out in the sun it was difficult to know what to expect. After getting chatting it turns out the winemaker lives in Manly (a suburb along from us in Sydney) and travels out to Mudgee a couple of days a week so he can balance growing grapes, making wine and surfing. Organic and biodynamic, he is producing some fine wines from a complex dark berry fruit pinot noir to a lower intervention Syrah style Shiraz with a leaner acidity and spice compared to most out of NSW. A really chilled out guy and incredibly knowledgeable with great wines, Thistle Hill is a must visit even if it is a bit further away from the bulk of the wineries.
With two trips to Mudgee complete it is safe to say we have made a reasonable dent on the wine scene and even squeezed in a walk up to . A small town ready to welcome you to their friendly and delicious food and wine scene Mudgee should certainly be your next trip away from the city.
*Smashy smashy juice – Low ABV, light, bright wine often lower intervention, designed to be drunk young and probably slightly chilled. Not to be taken too seriously.
