Lifted bright red fruit and spices, the colour is a lovely deep red in your glass. There are some very appealing savoury cherry flavours and very fine tannins, a result of perfectly ripened fruit. The oak takes a backseat due to the use of puncheons and older wood.
Awards and Accolades
92 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion "Hand-picked, 3 days cold soak, cultured yeast, matured in used French casks for 15 months. Bright, clear crimson-purple; the ultra-regional bouquet sets the scene with its savoury/earthy characters sewn through the medium-bodied palate, plum, blackberry and tar flavours to the fore. Its Graveyard origin encourages those who are patient."
2014 Vintage: 95 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion "Not, as one might imagine, a regional blend from many sources, but from young vines on the Graveyard Vineyard and declassified wines from the original plantings. Vivid crimson, it is a seriously good shiraz, with dark red fruits enriched with a sauce of French oak and peppered with the firm tannins that will protect its longevity: a bare minimum of 30 years."
From the Winery
Part vinomatic and part open top 2-4 tonne fermenters. The latter plunged two times per day. After 5 days, pressed off, with malolactic fermentation conducted in tank. The wine then went into 100% French oak made up of 25% puncheons and overall 25% new oak. The Shiraz grapes are sourced solely from the Graveyard Vineyard, being clonal vines planted through the 90s and massale selection from the 1968 plantings, with the oldest at 10 years of age.
If we have said it once, we have said it a million times, the word normal just doesn’t exist for the Hunter Valley. There was a three week turn around in picking compared to 2014, and most Semillon was off in the last week of January. It was a very dry winter of 2014 with only 54mm of rain from May to July. A very good budburst and spring, but then a cold and wet December resulted in quite large canopies and disease pressure. Thankfully all of our fruit is handpicked and the vineyard team did a great job of getting clean, sound fruit in. This vintage is stylistically on song, a smaller production overall due to the East Coast low hanging around at the end of January to early February period.
Don't Pay: $50.00
WBW Rating: 92/100
Closure: Stelvin
Region: Hunter Valley, NSW
Winemaker: Iain Riggs
Drink now until: 2032
Alc/Vol: 14.5 %