Mudgee
Inland and high, reaching 1,242 metres, with nights cold enough to hold acid in a place that is warm by day. Vines have been here since the 1850s, and it stayed a working farming district rather than a weekend one.
Known for
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Shiraz
- Chardonnay
Why Mudgee tastes the way it does
Higher and drier than the Hunter over the range, with warm days, cold nights and far less harvest rain. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are dense and firm, and there are old Chardonnay plantings. Ripening is reliable in a way the Hunter's is not.
January averages 23.5°C here and the growing season adds up to 2,027 heat units, which is warm, and it shows in riper, fuller wine.
A short history
Planted from 1858 by German settlers and producing continuously since, which makes it one of the older districts in the country. It stayed small and locally owned for most of its history.
Mudgee was registered as a protected wine name in 2000, which makes the boundary a legal definition rather than a marketing one.
What your house does to a bottle from Mudgee
A bottle from Mudgee ages at the rate its temperature sets, not at the rate the vintage chart says. Barello's model is the physical one: every 10°C above 13°C roughly doubles the rate, and at 25°C or more you are not ageing it, you are cooking it. Pick where you live and where the bottle actually sits.
Choose a city and a spot, and this line will tell you how much faster the bottle is ageing than it would in a cellar.
This is the same model that dates every bottle in Barello. Open the app to run it against your own wine. Or read how to store wine without a cellar, or the wine temperature chart.
Mudgee in numbers
| Planted vineyard | 1,922 ha | number 18 of 64 in Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Region area | 9,760 km² | 0.20% of it under vine |
| Grapes crushed | 1,721 t a year | 0.9 tonnes a hectare |
| January average | 23.5°C | number 47 coolest of 64 |
| Heat units | 2,027 | warmth added up over the growing season |
| Land in the GI rises | 227 to 1,242 m | the boundary, not where the vines are |
| Registered | 2000 | as a protected name |
Nearby
- Orange108 km south west, 1.7°C cooler
- Hunter116 km east, known for Semillon instead
- Cowra165 km south west, 1.7°C warmer
Distances are between the registered centres of each region, so they are as the crow flies rather than as the road goes.
Where these numbers come from
Boundaries and figures: Wine Australia Geographical Indications register, used under CC BY 4.0. Climate figures are the register's own long-run averages, measured in the vineyard. The history and the tasting notes above are Barello's own.