Overview: Wines Down Under Just a one-hour drive north of Sydney lay the lush rolling vineyards of Australia’s renowned Hunter Valley. And while it might have taken a couple of hundred years to get it right, Aussies today are rightly proud of the Valley’s benchmark shiraz and Semillon varietals - making every day a G’day for tasting some of the world’s finest wines. The Thirsty Traveler goes way down under to quench this thirst for adventure in wine’s new frontier, Australia.