The Hunter Valley is Australia's oldest wine region, dating back to the early 1800s, and a wine zone that includes the Hunter region and the sub-regions of the Upper Hunter Valley, Broke Fordwich and Pokolbin. It lies northwest of Newcastle in New South Wales, about a two to three-hour drive from the Sydney CBD (on a good day!). It has a warm and humid climate, with heavy cloud cover that tends to produce wines that are lower in alcohol than the warm climate wines of South Australia, for example. Famous for Semillon - and Semillon's aged styles - Shiraz and also Chardonnay.