New England – Click to Enlarge
New England Wine Region – NSW
The New England region is the most northerly wine region in New South Wales, extending to the Queensland border. GI (Geographical Indication) status was achieved in 2008, making it a relatively young region. New England is a re-emerging wine region with grape growing dating back as far as the first settlers. Squatters and settlers planted vineyards to make wine due to the difficulty of transporting alcohol from other major centres. The most famous was Mr George Wyndham, founder of the award-winning Wyndham Estate winery. George established the 100,000-acre Bukkulla property near Inverell the 1850’s.
By 1870, George had 10 hectares of vines, contributing to the total 50,000 litres of Wyndham Estate wines produced yearly. However, by about 1905, after the arrival of the railway, wine production from the Inverell area of New England was 227,000 litres from seven or eight larger vineyards and several smaller vineyards totalling about 45 hectares. Today New England has 136 hectares of plantings and around 20 wineries.
The region is a unique grape-growing region in Australia due to its diversity. From high altitude (with a good number of vineyards above 1,000m), cool-climate vineyards along the spine of the Great Dividing Range, to the lower and warmer sites on the western edges of the New England Tablelands. The weather is cooler than in many other parts of New South Wales. With cold winters and cool to warm summers, most rain falls in the first few months of the year.
