The Brokenwood Cru celebrate thier winning month of May in the latest edition of Breathe Magazine. Click on the link to view the issue on line!
Winners are Grinners. At the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards held at Tempus Two last night, 27th May, Brokenwood came out big winners with two of the major awards. Winemaker PJ Charteris was named Winemaker of the Year and the cellar crew took out Cellar Door of the Year. These awards were instigated four years ago as a way recognizing the importance to the Valley of the grape, wine and tourism industry.
This was the second time PJ had made it as a finalist and had strong competition in Neil McGuigan from Australian Vintage and Mark Richardson from Tyrrell’s. PJ joined Brokenwood in 1999 to take over the winery reins from Dan Dineen and has overseen a quality portfolio of wines at Brokenwood including NSW Wine of the Year in 2009 with the 2007 Forest Edge Chardonnay. The Cellar Door at Brokenwood is the public face and is under the guidance of Grant Radford. Third time lucky for the crew from Cellar Door and a well deserved and popular victory.
It was appropriate that one of the fastest wine men around at present, Gary Vaynerchuk (VAY NER CHUK) choppered into the Hunter Valley one Friday for a quick tasting and lunch. Gary V runs a wine shop in Springfield, New Jersey but not just any old wine shop. Sometimes cast as the enfant terrible of wine salesman, Gary quickly adopted the medium of social networking to get his message out and in doing so took his parents US$5M wine business to US$45M.
One aspect of social media that clicked for Gary was his Wine Library TV, currently attracting over 80,000 viewers a day. Why? Honest, loud, fast – did I mention he was from New Jersey but most of all knowledgeable. Check out http://tv.winelibrary.com and you’ll see what the fuss is about. One of the more entertaining videos is with Ellen Degeneres.
Arriving a bit green around the gills (remember not to sit backwards in a chopper) Gary V was soon into a lineup of 2010 Hunter Semillon. Amongst the rapid fire commentary was a couple of salient points. First the ‘Hunter Valley’ is a very salable name for the USA, Semillon has a better chance of selling in the US than Riesling because it so unique, low alcohol and no oak are bonuses. Ahead of schedule, a quick taste through some barrels at Brokenwood and then off to lunch at Bistro Molines. Local produce including yabbies from the dam, Hunter snails and quail. Robbie Molines at his best.
Five Hunter winemakers Andrew Thomas, Andrew Margan, Keith Tulloch, Chris Tyrrell and Iain Riggs had lined up a flight of 2009 Semillon, 2004/05 Semillon, young Shiraz and three very good 1991 Shiraz. A superb 1986 Tyrrell’s Futures Semillon was a highlight, being perfectly mature with honey, toast and bees wax.
The Brokenwood wines were;
2009 Hunter Valley Semillon – a Silver Medal winner at Sydney and tastes as fresh as the day it was bottled. Lemongrass and lime zest lift. A good bet for further aging.
2004 ILR Reserve Semillon – Gold medal at Sydney and at 6 years of age just starting to evolve with lanolin and vanillin notes.
2006 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz – the middle wine from three dry vintages and perfect balance of fruit and oak. A long term keeper.
1991 Graveyard Shiraz – a drought year wine and one that hasn’t changed much over the last 10 years. This one had a slight ‘mushroom cork’ but very good soft palate.
Last word goes to Gary V, buy what ‘brings the thunder’ to you.
Since 1995 the Hilton Brisbane Masterclass has brought together a fabulous line-up of chefs and winemakers from around the world – Antonio Carluccio, Gordon Ramsay, Michel Richard, jean-Georges Vongerichten, Michel Roux and many more … including Iain Riggs.
Join us in 2010 to taste, learn, laugh and sip your way through each day. With twenty sessions a day there’s plenty of choice from a range of talented International and Australian presenters looking at – shiraz, chocolate, champagne, spice and matching food and wine.
SYDNEY ROYAL WINE SHOW results are in;
GOLD
2004 ILR Reserve Semillon
SILVER
2009 Hunter Valley Semillon
2005 ILR Reserve Semillon
2008 Indigo Vineyard Shiraz
2007 Mistress Block Vineyard Shiraz
BRONZE
2009 Oakey Creek Vineyard Semillon
2006 Belford Vineyard Semillon
2005 Maxwell Vineyard Semillon
2008 Indigo Vineyard Chardonnay
2008 Indigo Vineyard Supa Chardonnay
2008 Indigo Vineyard Pinot Noir
2006 Wade Block 2 Vineyard Shiraz
One of the joys of the Hunter Valley, apart from the wines, is the enthusiasm of the younger brigade of winemakers. Sarah Crowe for instance was with Brokenwood for a number of years, won the Hunter Wine Industry Award for Rising Star last year and is now off running another local winery. Her place has been filled by a keen young Hunter man Stuart Hordern. And despite all the doom and gloom about the wine industry, they are approaching the vintage with great energy and respect for Hunter wine styles. Vintage 2010 is an exciting one for the young and the young at heart.
The 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, then swung north east taking in the Graveyard and Verona vines, then across Hope Estate and continued down Palmers Lane and across to the Lovedale region, did a reasonable amount of damage. Vines/grapes and roadside trees took a belting. The Broke/Fordwich area got their turn on the 22nd December. A bit of fruit thinning, even if random, didn’t do too much harm and the continued 40C weather helped dry out the damaged fruit. Rain at the end of December and then again on the 3rd January had the vines in great shape.
Vintage started on the 20th January and all whites picked by 28th, one of the most compressed pickings at Brokenwood. A number of hail affected blocks were fruit thinned through December and this paid dividend as the Semillon and Chardonnay juice are terrific. Varying sugars from 10 baume up to 11.5 for the Semillon and 12.5 to 13 for the Chardonnay. Some reds have been picked in the valley but mainly off very low yielding blocks. The Graveyard, Verona and Mistress Block Shiraz is approximately one week off. This will again be picked over a very short time meaning the Hunter vintage could be all done and dusted by mid February. Quality will be high.
The east coast is back into an El Nino weather pattern and it will be interesting to see if January vintages become the norm for the Hunter Valley. Of our other regions, Beechworth appears to be the pick, with great winter rainfall and a mild to warm summer.
Vintage 2010 has begun with all the vintage cru on board and the welcoming of the first grapes which include;
Semillon from ‘Oakey Creek’ Vineyard
Semillon from ‘Latara’ Vineyard &
Chardonnay from ‘Eagle’s Rest’ Vineyard (formerly Maxwell)
