Vintage

An exceptionally wet start to the season provided unique challenges to region, which required greater hours in the vineyard to ensure quality was maintained. However, a warm and dry spell from Mid January through till March resulted in a year of excellent quality across the board. Pristine pure whites with excellent acid structures ensuring longevity and concentrated rich red's showing all the hallmarks of classic Hunter Valley styles. A year that provides a wealth of riches.

Vineyard

Our Semillon is grown on well-drained sandy loam soils located in the heart of Hunter Valley wine country. The crop yields are relatively low, producing an excellent concentration of fruit flavour. The Dairy Hill block is an East facing vineyard that benefits from warm mornings and cool afternoons which results in this site consistently producing the best Semillon.

Winemaking

Hand-picked, gently crushed and allowed to soak for 4 hours prior to pressing. Free-run extraction taken to a stainless steel tank and allowed to cold settle for 12 hours before racking lightly cloudy juice for fermentation. Fermented at 16-18oC with ambient yeast for 10 days in a combination of old neutral oak casks and stainless steel. Left on yeast lees for 3 months post ferment before natural clarification and gentle filtration. No finings.

Tasting Notes

Complex and rich with ripe orchard pears and yellow citrus surrounded by mineral cap-gun and slate aromatics. The palate is layered and concentrated with earthy minerals framing ripe citrus fruits and tense acidity. This wine is both delicate and concentrated, it displays both light phenolic spice and pristine acid which will provide the structure for the wine to develop positively over the next 8-12 years. In this time the wine will attain even greater weight and texture and earthy complexity.

Alcohol: 12.5%/VOL. | STD. Drinks: 7.5 | Bottled: May 2023 | pH: 3.09 | TA: 6.8 g/L

Accolades

"Handpicked from dry grown vines. Foot-stomped, with a brief period on skins before an ambient fermentation in a meld of tank and larger format neutral wood. A different handle to the regional standard. Dry grown. Lemon drop and picked Indian lime, with pithy hints of stone fruit, drifting well away from the tighter citric norm. For the better. A broader texture, loaning itself to approachability without any forfeit of intensity. Nicely chewy, too. This is a delicious mid-weighted semillon, setting the regional bar high by virtue of its stridency across the palate and attractive variances. Drink or hold but best in eight years. Screw cap."

96 points & Top 100 Wines of Australia  -  Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor - James Suckling

93 points  -  Jeni Port