A milestone year for the Hunter Valley

It started with a vintage universally agreed by critics as one of the best Hunter Valley vintages of all time.

Then, not long after the vintage was in the bottle, the Hunter Valley was chosen as Australia’s best food and wine region in the 2014 Gold List Awards for Luxury Travel Magazine, shortly followed by the announcement as one of the top 10 wine destinations in the world by USA Today.

Mid-year, two of the Hunter Valley’s new and dynamic generation of stars took out the titles of both Gourmet Traveller Young Australian Winemaker of the Year (Gwyn Olsen of Brian Ridge) and Australian Young Restaurateur of the Year (Troy Rhoades-Brown of Muse Kitchen and Muse Restaurant). 

In November, the region claimed four titles at the NSW Tourism Awards,  shared between Margan Wines and Chateau Elan and highlighting the Hunter Valley’s sophistication and reputation as Australia’s pre-eminent wine tourism destination. Wrapping up the year the area has now been voted the ‘Best Wine Region’ by Australian Traveller, and also voted number one in NSW and third in Australia for the category of ‘Hotel Reputations’ by travel website Trivago.

Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association general manager Gus Maher said that the results speak for themselves.

“It certainly has been a milestone year, and bears out the Hunter Valley’s status as Australia’s most sophisticated regional tourism destination,” he said. 

“However perhaps our biggest achievement has been the accolades received from the 2014 wine vintage, which has been judged by astute palates as one of the very best in the 190 year winemaking history of the Hunter Valley.

“As the very special Hunter Valley year draws to a close, as a team, Hunter Valley winemakers, grape growers, hoteliers, chefs and tour and attraction operators can all take a bow and celebrate a vintage year.”