In what was a great growing season, the lower Hunter Valley finished the calendar year with 680mm of rain and the majority of that in the winter months. Then followed a very warm to hot spring but bud burst and flowering was unaffected. Friday 20th November saw the temperature hit 46C and gave way to one of our more spectacular summer storms. The hail that swept across the lower Hunter Valley came around the foothills of the Brokenback Range, and then swung north east taking in the Graveyard and Verona vines. With no 2010 Graveyard Shiraz to be released the Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz appears in this wine, the Brokenwood Hunter Valley Shiraz 2010.
In the glass, the wine has medium density colour with purple hues. With a higher proportion of old vine fruit in the blend; the aroma has richness to it from the newer oak and more concentrated fruit. Bright red cherry fruit and background charry oak, with the oak giving a slight sweet vanillin note. A perfect supple, medium bodied palate – as it should be. Earthy sweet red fruit characters and soft tannins that carry to the end. The oak is evident but sits well with the fruit. A very pleasant drink now or leave for further bottle maturation.
Fermentation was carried out in part vinomatic and part open top 2-4 tonne fermenters. The latter plunged two times per day. Perfect grapes do not need a lot of input and after 7 days pressed off, with malolactic fermentation conducted in tank. Oak maturation was in American barriques for 14 months.
While the basis of the Hunter Valley Shiraz is the clonal Shiraz in the Graveyard (planted in the 1990s) this wine gets a bonus in the form of barriques of Shiraz off the old vines that don’t quite make the icon Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz blend.
Brokenwood Wines
Address 401-427 McDonalds Road Pokolbin NSW 2320
Telephone 02 4998 7559
Open Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 5pm Sunday 10am to 5pm
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