Mudge – Click to Enlarge
Mudgee Wine Region – NSW
The Mudgee wine region lays claim to some of Australia’s oldest vineyards and the nation’s highest. It consists of over 35 cellar doors offering 44 grape varietals grown in the region. Understandably, Mudgee is one of the most recognised regions in New South Wales after the Hunter Valley.
The region is one of three wine regions in the Central Ranges zone of New South Wales. Situated on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, it shares the zone with Orange and Cowra.
Mudgee has some of the highest vineyards in Australia, ranging from 227 – 1242m above sea level As a result, this altitude brings a very different climate to its neighbour, the Hunter Valley. Springs frosts and cold nights delay budbursts; rainfall is lower, sunshine hours greater, and irrigation essential. The summer and autumn days are warm; however, the harvest is four weeks behind the Hunter due to the cooler climate and higher altitude.
With a viticultural history that stretches back to 1858, Mudgee has played a crucial role in Australian wine heritage. Although primarily a producer of robust and intensely coloured red wines, Mudgee was the cradle in which a particularly good clone of Chardonnay lay unrecognised for over 50 years. A clone which some believe may have been a descendant of the Chardonnay introduced to Australia in 1832 by James Busby.
