2023 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz

ICON RANGE

Understandably some excitement surrounding the release of this wine. Being awarded 98 points on Wine Front not long after bottling is high praise. Tasting the wine, it is easy to see why. A wine of great poise, sharing a pedigree with the celebrated 2018, 2014, 1998 and 1986 Graveyard vintages. This is a very, very good Shiraz. Our third consecutive wet year, La Nina continued to make herself known through the first three quarters of 2022, with widespread floods again experienced across South Eastern Australia. Up to the 31st of December 2022, we received 1365.5mm of rain with 97 rain days at Brokenwood. Pokolbin reached its annual rainfall by the end of June, with 2022 being the wettest year that we have had on record. The start of the growing season was particularly challenging with vineyard access and Downy Mildew pressure a constant issue. These issues resulted in very low yields. Thankfully, the weather cleared up in late October. Fruit condition and canopy were excellent despite the cool summer. This resulted in one of the latest harvests on record, resulting in near perfect tannin ripeness. The old vines blocks were picked between the 17th and the 20th of February under clear skies in pristine condition.