City winemakers: Inner-city Newcastle's best kept secret

There's a slow but consistent rumble on the streets of the industrial port of Newcastle that, thankfully, is not a repeat of the 1989 earthquake that shook the city. Newcastle is settling into a new post-mining, post-BP era in which the inner-city landscape is changing from grungy wasteland to social and cultural hub, with an influx of new cafes and restaurants.

If ever there was a symbol of that evolution it was the appearance of a winery in Wickham, once part of its industrial heartland. Opened, in 2011, by winemaker Rob Wilce, and his partner Janine, in a former car workshop backed by a laneway that was infamous for drugs and prostitution, it was a first not simply for Newcastle but also for Australia.

"Although I know of one that started up recently in Sydney," says Wilce when I meet him for a wine and cheese tasting, "we were the only inner city winemakers in Australia when we started."

Rob and Janine moved to Newcastle from Sydney fifteen years ago, having worked in the Hunter Valley wine industry, around Pokolbin.

"We always wanted to open our own winery," says Wilce. "And looked at the idea of opening up an inner city premises in Sydney, but the costs were prohibitive so we thought, why not Newcastle?"

After developing the concept over a few years and taking time to find the right premises and get the necessary council approvals, the Inner City Winemakers made its first vintage in 2014.

Set in an inviting light-filled space, the walls hung with the work of local artists and upturned wine barrels used for tasting tables, it is nonetheless a production area with wine fermented on site, aged in oak and blended, before being sent away for bottling."Everything is done on a shoestring," says Wilce, who still uses an old wine press he purchased from "an old Portuguese guy in Marrickville."

Grapes are sourced from the nearby Hunter Valley but also from other NSW regions like New England, Orange and even Young. Wilce likes to play with unusual varietals, producing a Gewurtztraminer, with a rich bouquet of lychee and pineapple, that is a good accompaniment to spicy food, and a full-bodied Spanish-style Tempranillo.

The winemaker is already attracting plaudits, most recently when his 2015 Hilltops Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded five stars and best in its class by November's Winestate magazine.