The Broke Fordwich Wine Region

Historically, Broke Fordwich is one of the oldest wine growing areas in Australia with plantings dating back to the early 1820’s. The region now has a mixture of innovative new producers as well as the original proud, farming families who have been continuously farming in the region since 1922 and have arguably, Australia’s oldest verdelho plantings.  The area boasts sandy loam (ideal for semillon), river flat alluvial soil, red volcanic soil plus unique pockets of red basalt from the Fordwich Sill- not unlike the Coonawarra’s famous terra rossa.

In the past, the region has been known as one of the ‘produce bowls’ of the Hunter, supplying much of its grapes to large Pokolbin based wine companies. Author and winemaker Dr. Max Lake commented in his book of 1970 that the grapes grown in Fordwich provided the bigger flavoured wines on which much of the reputation of Pokolbin rested.
 
Today the area boasts over 70 “Boutique” vineyards. Ten intimate Cellar doors are scattered throughout the valley, and offer a wide range of award and trophy winning wines for tasting and purchase.

Visitors to the area are surprised by the amount of wildlife they see. It's rare to visit the area without seeing kangaroos, wombats and a large variety of birds.