IN THE 2021 Halliday Wine Companion Awards the Brokenwood 2018 Graveyard Vineyard Hunter Valley Shiraz was judged wine of the year and shiraz of the year and now the 2019 version has claimed similar success.
The $350-a-bottle Brokenwood 2019 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz scored 96 in the 2022 Wine Companion, recently won the top MMM ranking in the Huon Hooke-Bob Campbell Real Review online wine site and I have awarded it my Newcastle Herald 2022 Wine of the Year, red of the year and shiraz of the year. Available at brokenwood.com.au and the Pokolbin cellar door, it's a sublime Hunter shiraz with 13.5 per cent alcohol, garnet hues and forest floor scents. Intense blackcurrant flavour zips onto front palate, the middle palate shows plum, bramble jelly, spice, coffee cream chocolate and supple vanillin oak and the finish has spearminty tannins. Great with cherry-glazed roast duck and will age handsomely over 18 years.
In August's 2022 Hunter Valley Wine Show the Tyrrell's 2013 Belford Semillon won the Petrie-Drinan Trophy for the best white wine of the show, the Maurice O'Shea Trophy for the best semillon, the Len Evans Trophy for the best single-vineyard wine and the McGuigan Family Trophy for the best two-year-old and older semillon. I have selected it as my white wine of the year and semillon of the year.
It sells for $100 as a limited re-release at tyrrells.com.au and the Pokolbin winery, shining green-gold in the glass and beguiling with scents of orange blossom and slate. The front palate shows elegant lime flavour, the middle palate introduces green apple, lemon curd, mineral and honey and toast and steely acid plays at the finish. It would be a perfect match for crab souffle and will cellar up to 12 years.
My cabernet sauvignon of the year is the superlative $120-a-bottle Blue Pyrenees 2018 Richardson Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from western Victoria's cool-climate Pyrenees Region, available at bluepyrenees.com.au, the Avoca cellar door and bottle shops. Blue Pyrenees was planted in 1962 by France's Remy Cointreau group to make Australian brandy, but switching in 1984 to premium table and sparkling wine. After a 40-year ownership, Remy Cointreau in 2002 sold out and the operation has been owned since 2019 by the Glenlofty Wines group of the Richmond-Smith family.
THE most unusual wine to come in 2022 to the Newcastle Herald tasting bench is my riesling of the year, the $65 Huesgen and Margan 2020 Trabener Wurzgarten Riesling.
It's from a friendship forged on the Tyrrell's vintage night shift 34 years ago between Andrew Margan and Ado Huesgen, a young German Mosel intern.
As Andrew visited Mosel in 2019 the pals used Ado's grapes for the Hunter ace to make his first riesling and last November the Huesgen and Margan 2019 won a 96 out of 100 Elite 2022 Canberra International Riesling Challenge ranking.
Since that now-sold-out wine Andrew and Ado have united German Mosel and Aussie expertise to make 2020 and 2022 Trabener Wurzgartens, with the 2020 being at the Margan Milbrodale Road, Broke, winery and margan.com.au and the 2022 coming up during this year. The beguiling 2020 is brassy tinted straw, passionfruit-scented and with vibrant ruby grapefruit front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows lychee, lime zest, ginger and mineral elements and a finish of slatey acid.
The Keepers of the Flame 2019 Chardonnay, a debut brand from a new generation the Scarborough family, is my chardonnay of the year.
It is the initiative of Ian and Merralea Scarborough's marketer daughter Sally, winemaker son Jerome and his top viticulturalist wife Liz Riley and the inaugural 2019, 2020 and 2021 chardonnays sell at scarboroughwine.com.au and the Pokolbin cellar for $100 each or $250 a three-pack.
My star red varietal blend is the Freeman 2016 Secco Rondinella-Corvina from former Sturt University wine science professor-turned Hilltops vigneron Brian Freeman. It's a style mirroring Italy's Amarone and Valpolicella reds made by taking the ripest October-picked grapes and drying them on cane mats for three months. Brian tweaks the process by drying portion of his rondinella and corvina grapes in a neighbour's solar prune dehydrator. This 2016 version is $40 at freemanvineyards.com.au and the Young area Prunevale winery.
The $27 Longview 2022 Grigio-Gruner, a novel Adelaide Hills blend of pinot grigio (AKA pinot gris) and the Austrian-Hungarian-origin gruner veltliner, is my white varietal blend of the year. Straw-hued, passionfruit-scented and kiwifruit front-palate-flavoured. The middle palate shows ruby grapefruit, lime zest and mineral characters and flinty acid refreshes at the finish. Get it at longviewvineyard.com.au, the Macclesfield cellar door and Dan Murphy's.
WINE REVIEWS
CAPTIVATING KEEPER
FROM the Denman Ogilvie's View vineyard, formerly Rosemount's Roxburgh Estate, this lovely Keepers of the Flame 2019 Scarborough Chardonnay is. It has brassy hues, honeysuckle scents and plush golden peach front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows fig, ruby grapefruit, oatmeal and buttery oak and slatey acid plays at the finish.
PRICE: $100.
DRINK WITH: crab souffle.
AGEING: eight years.
RATING: 5.5 stars (out of 6)
ITALIAN BLEND BLISS
THIS Freeman 2016 Secco Rondinella-Corvina is from Australia's only plantings of these two Italian-origin varieties. The wine has 14.8% alcohol, gamey aromas and shines deep crimson in the glass. The front palate shows intense cassis flavour, the middle palate Morello cherry, truffles, spice and savoury oak and a finish of dusty tannins.
PRICE: $40.
DRINK WITH: roast pork.
AGEING: 12 years.
RATING: 5.5 stars
TOP-DRAWER CABERNET
GLOWING deep purple in the glass and with 14% alcohol and berry pastille aromas, the Blue Pyrenees 2018 Richardson Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon displays expressive, ripe blackberry flavour on the front palate, Morello cherry, spice, cloves, mint and savoury oak on the middle palate and a finish of ferric tannins.
PRICE: $120.
DRINK WITH: roast beef in minted bearnaise sauce.
AGEING: 15 years.
RATING: 5.5 stars
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.
