Hunter Valley winemaker of the year Liz Silkman among other gourmet greats
Amid the region’s award-winning wineries and restaurants is a 1937 butchery drawing carnivores from far and wide.
Through the First Creek winery cellar door in the Hunter Valley, down steep stairs to a vast collection of barrels and in a room with a long white bench, the 2025 Halliday Winemaker of the Year is at her favourite task – perfecting the year’s chardonnay.
The creation blends science and art as Liz Silkman decides what’s just right from a tabletop of samples, using her refined palate and aroma sensibilities that have carried her to be a four-time winner of Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year. Not bad for someone who started work as a lab technician at Brokenwood Wines in the Hunter in 1999 but by 2006 had been named Dux of the Year at the Len Evans Tutorial, the proving ground for experts founded by the legendary wine educator whose Indulgence columns on various drops, and much else, entertained readers of The Australian from its early years.
Liz is chief winemaker and her husband, Shaun, chief executive at First Creek Wines, the Pokolbin winery established by his parents, Greg and Jenny Silkman, in 1998. Liz was not from an industry family – her dad an electrician and mum a teacher – but honed her skills observing and “just listening” to Evans and great winemakers. She and Shaun launched the Silkman label of small-batch wines as a passion project to unleash their “creative freedom” alongside the First Creek brand. Liz is proud of their achievement but somewhat diffident when it comes to the accolades. She’s in her happy place in the work room, concentrating and consulting with a small team, putting together the “jigsaw puzzle”. A whiteboard behind her has indecipherable (to me) columns of figures and a smiley face. First Creek won six trophies at the 2025 NSW Wine Awards, including Wine of the Year for its Single Vineyard Will’s Hill Chardonnay 2023.
Never ones to rest on their laurels, Liz and Shaun are working on a new Silk label. That seems typical of the younger generation of wine and food producers in the Hunter Valley, with projects in planning to revitalise the region that has been growing grapes since the 1820s, making its mark at the quality end of the market (in quantity, it produces less than 3 per cent of Australian wines).
On Maitland Street in Branxton, one-time chef from restaurants in London, LA and Sydney Michael Robinson prides himself on working from the kitchen backwards, and has turned a 1937 heritage butcher shop into a gourmet meat-lovers’ delight. All cream, black and white tiled, Michael’s Hungerford Meat Co sells fresh cuts that include traditional chops and snags and choice “upmarket” fare from local producers. It also has an extensive refrigerated showcase of dry-aged and smoked meats and deli offerings. The original shop, on a long block, has grown with annexes to the rear, and to one side a grey-brick kitchen with takeaway counter, a window to the perfect hamburger. Shade covering over the dining forecourt might be in order because there’s a lot to savour in the dry aged cheeseburger with HMC beef patty, onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard. It is, as promised, fat, juicy and local. Order fries too and indulge.
Michael’s HMC project, now with 17 employees, is far from finished, with plans for a new building behind the main shop, which will have laneway access and carry an extended deli range. Claude Hungerford, who established his Butchery and Smokehouse nearly nine decades ago, would be impressed.
Troy Rhoades-Brown has been a Hunter Valley culinary champion since opening Muse Restaurant in 2009 when he was in his early 20s. Muse, on the Hungerford Hill wine estate, has been the region’s two-hatted showcase for fine dining (joined this year by EXP. Restaurant) using local produce. Think: five or seven-course menus that may include dishes such as smoked Murray cod with Hirosaki turnip and rhubarb; or Redgate Farm duck, with wild rice and ragu, radicchio, parsnip cream, quince and pepperberry; or wood-fired Angus tri-tip beef with sugar leaf cabbage; and the Muse Coconut, a dark chocolate shell with coconut mousse (plus sweet oodles more).
Troy has his own innovative project to enhance his restaurant’s offerings. I score a sneak peek at a kitchen garden he and his family have been nurturing, largely built from rescued timber, bricks and stones, including a reconstructed hayshed now a greenhouse blooming with produce that’s bound for Muse’s menus. It’s spring and peas, cabbages and turnips are on the way out. Cumquats and mulberries are being harvested. There is a season, turn, turn, turn. The Hunter Valley is a destination that rewards return visits a few times a year.
In the know
The Lane Retreat, located on a Bimbadgen Estate vineyard in Pokolbin with views to Broken Back Range, offers 60 comfortably stylish private studios as a base for a Hunter Valley break. From about $250 a night; check website for special offers.
thelaneretreat.com.au
First Creek offers a wine-tasting experience from $10, open seven days.
Graham Erbacher was a guest of Hunter Culinary Association.
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