The Lower Hunter wine country is compact — Pokolbin, Lovedale and Mount View all sit within a 15-minute drive of one another — but it is spread out, rural and best explored with a plan. These are the places and experiences we would build a visit around, each with its own guide covering what to do, how to get there and which tours include it, plus four trips further afield.
Two smaller sub-regions are worth knowing as well. Mount View, on the slopes south of Pokolbin, has hillside vineyards, long views and one of the valley’s best-loved restaurants. The Upper Hunter, an hour or more to the north-west around Denman, Muswellbrook and Scone, is quieter still, with a handful of wineries among horse studs and cattle country.
