NSW has turned its back on local wine. It’s time that changed, say industry leaders

NSW wine has an image problem. As the Australian palate evolved beyond the big, bright flavours that once led Hunter Valley winemakers to international acclaim, demand for NSW wine plummeted.

Forty years after British critics heralded the state’s trademark semillon as “sunshine in a bottle”, NSW wine now accounts for just 12 per cent of all wine listed at NSW restaurants and bars, according to Wine Business Solutions’ annual on-premise report.

Retail sales are no better. While NSW spends more on wine than any other state or territory, more than 90 per cent of sales go to interstate and international wine – sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, shiraz from South Australia, and most of all, champagne.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Andrew Margan, the Hunter Valley winemaker behind Margan Wines. “We are the birthplace of Australian wine. We have every variety, every price point, every style … yet we are the least discovered wine state in the country.”

Something has to change, he says: “As we speak, there are families who have grown grapes in the Riverina for god knows how many years, families who have depended on grape growing, having to pull up their vineyards.”

The lack of local support compounds a year of exceptional challenges within the winemaking industry: global wine consumption hit a 60-year low, overproduction led to falling grape prices, and 15 per cent of vines have been ripped up across the Riverlands, where growers have struggled to turn a profit.

“We need the industry itself to get behind us, get excited, and create a compelling environment for NSW wine to be taken seriously,” says Maddison Park-Neilson who, along with partner Tony Zafirakos, makes Aristotelis Ke Anthoula wine in Pambula.

Sommelier Amelia Birch, who owns Newtown wine bar Famelia, says customers expect NSW wine to be too rich, oaky and intense – at odds with consumption trends, which show Gen Z and Millennial drinkers prefer lighter wines, spritzes and complex, emerging varietals.

“We are starting to see smaller NSW winemakers who are meeting the market – responding to the grapes, the conditions and adapting their picking times,” Birch says. “But [as an industry], we haven’t gone: ‘No, we’re not that any more, this is why, let us show you’.”

There are 16 winegrowing regions in NSW, from Mudgee in the Central Tablelands, to the Murray Darling in the south-west of the state. And within each region, there are innovative, next-generation winemakers such as Zafirakos and Park-Neilson, Matthew and Chris Jessop of Jessop Wines in Orange, and Mem Hemmings, the sommelier and winemaker behind natural wine brand Meredith.

Hemmings says we need to broaden our understanding of NSW wine beyond the Hunter Valley. When the winemaking region garnered international acclaim in the early ’80s, there were just 76 wine producers in NSW. Now, there are more than 430.

“It’s not about erasing that legacy – we are so proud of the Hunter Valley – but [we also] need to make room at the table for other regions, and showcase how diverse NSW wine can be,” she says.

Zoe Brunton, head sommelier at Redfern restaurant Olympus Dining, says that “we have lost touch with the little producers doing amazing things”.

“But with the new generation of winemakers, that connection is coming. These winemakers have wonderful stories, they just need to be heard by the right people.”

At Tenterfield wine bar and restaurant Stonefruit, local wines far outsell their international counterparts, says co-owner and sommelier Alistair Blackwell. The drinks list, which champions New England and Granite Belt producers, was awarded Drinks List of the Year at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025 Awards.

Blackwell says the tourist trade helps: “People come here to experience what Tenterfield is like, they want to eat local and drink local … and when they try [NSW] wine you can see their perception start to shift, and they start to have a new understanding that times have changed.”

Within the niche, natural wine world, such wines “fly off the shelves”, says Joel Amos, owner of online retailer Drnks. “Some of the most exciting wines in Australia are being made in NSW … they just [don’t seem to be] penetrating at a commercial level.”

Wine distributor Joval Wines sells wine to 1500 premises in NSW, with nine NSW wines in a portfolio of more than 50 brands. State manager James Kilmartin says he’s spent the past seven years trying to grow its NSW representation through trade days, masterclasses and educational trips to regional areas.

But many up-and-coming winemakers, such as Aristotelis Ke Anthoula, don’t have distributors. Park-Neilson says it’s been difficult to crack the Sydney market, where wholesale sales have declined over the past five years.

“Melbourne and Adelaide are much more parochial in regards to how they support their winemaking regions,” says sommelier and wine communicator Samantha Payne. “Sydney is an international city with a lot of tourists … and that’s reflected in our wine lists.”

At Solotel venues such as Chiswick (Woollahra), Aria (Circular Quay) and Chophouse (Sydney CBD), NSW wines have an even share of the pie – but that pie is divided among winemaking regions from across the world.

“NSW is not only competing with Australia, it’s competing with the world,” says beverage director Annette Lacey. “[But] we should be supporting our local industry because if it disappeared we would be very sorry.”