AFTER 16 years as a journalist, Tim Stevens in 1996 made a massive change into winemaking – a move heavily influenced by a love of Mudgee reds and particularly those of Huntington Estate.
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He and his then wife Connie took the plunge by buying the 24-year-old eight-hectare Abercorn vineyard and 50-tonne-crush winery in Ulan Rd, Mudgee.
It was a serendipitous purchase for the pressman, who over time had been looking for a vineyard to buy, had done a Charles Sturt University wine course and had a cellar full of Huntington Estate wines.
It was especially so because Abercorn was next door to Huntington.
Huntington was established in 1969 on the site of a run-down orchard by Sydney lawyer-turned-winemaker Bob Roberts and his wife Wendy, who made it one of Mudgee’s iconic wine producers and in 1980 launched the annual Huntington Music Festival.
Tim Stevens established a sound reputation for his Abercorn wines and then in 2005 there came a crowning opportunity. Bob Roberts, who now lives in Orange, decided he wanted to retire and asked Tim if he was interested in buying Huntington Estate. Did he what! The offer was joyfully seized by Tim.
With the purchase came a promise to maintain the Roberts commitment to excellence and to wines of “substance over style”.
It’s an undertaking Tim and his second wife Nicky have honoured, processing grapes from the 44-hectare Huntington vineyard, from Abercorn and from fruit bought from Mudgee premium growers at the 250-tonne-crush Huntington winery.
Huntington label wines are almost exclusively estate-grown and wines sourced from Abercorn vines and from bought-in grapes go into the Tim Stevens brand. The portfolio includes all the prized Bob Roberts-style reds and includes smart whites, such as the $22 trophy-winning 2015 Gewurztraminer, a shiraz-based fortified, a non-vintage sparkler and next year Tim plans a sweet white dessert wine.
Tim and Nicky have also kept faith with music lovers by continuing the Huntington Estate Music Festival, which last November attracted 1000 concert-goers to the 10-day event.
Nicky, a former executive with Unilever, is Huntington general manager – as well as being festival organiser. Tim, now 50, was born and raised on Queensland’s Darling Downs, where his parents have a cattle property. He worked as a reporter for The Land and ABC Radio’s Country Hour, and later in the Canberra press gallery.
