It's a familiar scene: you're on your way to the in-laws for dinner, and there are somewhere between 10 and countless bottles of Sauvignon Blanc on the shelf at Dan Murphy's. There's even more in the fridge at the back of the shop. All you wanted was a nice glass of wine at a reasonable price that might win you some familial brownie points. But now you're drowning in labels and trying to remember all that second-hand advice that armchair wine drinkers like to give without ever needing anyone to ask them for it.
What did they say? Do the medals mean anything, or are they just for the aesthetic? Was it always try a wine with a foot on the label, or never drink one with a foot? Are fancy cursive fonts better than non-cursive fonts? What in sweet forgiveness is a Fiano? And why does it sound like the name of a sensible Italian hatchback?
It's enough to drive anyone to drink. And yet, it feels like it's one of those peculiarly universal experiences that, at some point, we all share, as if turning 30 comes with an unspoken agreement that we will suddenly know exactly how to pick a great wine and spend the next 10 years pretending we know the difference between various kinds of soft cheese.
It can feel like a minefield. But it doesn't have to be.
"The whole foundation of wine is that either you like it or you don't," wine retailer Charlie Kempe says over a glass one afternoon. "From that point, you can grow and grow. But you don't have to learn all the minutiae of it. You can, but that's the best thing about wine - you'll never know everything.
"I honestly think that Australia has some of the best wine in the world, and, funnily enough, it's right on our doorstep. Semillon is grown better in the Hunter, in my opinion, than anywhere else in the world; it's a statement of what we can produce, and we just want you to try it.
"It can be intimidating, coming in and thinking that you have to swirl it in the glass and know the terms, but we don't want that. We just want you to give it a go."
Kempe has come up through the Hunter's first industry and has spent years working among some of the region's premier labels. He wants to bring the valley to the city and has been running impromptu cellar door events for $10 a pop with some of the Hunter's best winemakers weekly, as well as free tastings and advice most Thursdays and Fridays, at Artisanal Cellars just off Hunter Street in Newcastle's city centre.
Daniel Thomas, the son of noted Hunter winemaker Andrew Thomas, has come to show off some of his family's latest vintage. Much of the valley's business comes from visiting Sydneysiders, he says, travelling up the M1 for a weekend in wine country, but he is keen to see a younger and more local crowd discover one of the world's best winemaking regions that just happens to be in their backyard.
He pours a glass of his dad's 2022 Shiraz and effortlessly rattles off a litany of dates and harvest tidbits from a memory that can only come from growing up surrounded by vines.
It has been a mixed few years for the Hunter. Fires in 2020 caused havoc with widespread smoke taint that can affect the taste for all the wrong reasons. Then, 2021 and 2022 were wetter than ideal with a prevailing La Nina, but 2023 has seen a resurgence and a return to form.
"In 2021, our reds just absolutely took off, and the '22s similarly - that's what you've got in your glass now," he says. "And 2024 was really easy. It was hot and dry, and we got the fruit off when we wanted to. I think you'll be stoked with what we put out in 2024."
The Andrew Thomas label is a staple of the Hunter, specialising in single vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon and Shiraz - the signature local varietals - and the label's website lists a staggering awards catalogue. But if you met the titular maker, or his son, in the street, you could be forgiven for not picking out one of the region's most accomplished winemakers.
"I hate doing the wine wanker thing," Daniel says with a wry grin, "We make good booze, but if you don't like it, you can toss it over your shoulder. Drink it because you love it, but if you don't like it, that's ok, too."
Kempe wants his pop-up experiment, which has already included several of the region's most recognisable names, to be the unpretentious introduction to wine for anyone curious, eager to learn, or who wants to branch out and try something new. There are no wrong answers, he says, and there is no bad taste. And the best time to start is now. There are also few other places to meet some of the Hunter's best producers while discovering something exceptional and unexpected.
The retailer and the producer say it is about the quality of experience over the quantity.
"We want people to come in and have the experience," Kempe says, "To learn and explore and find out what goes with what and how to drink it, and what we can create here. And Dan's here - the man making the product with his dad. And when you see that name on a menu or a label, you've met them and tried that wine.
"That can make all the difference."
