IN 1973 the first meagre crop of Brokenwood Hunter vintage grapes were harvested and carried in the boot of Len Evans's Bentley for processing at Rothbury Estate winery.
In the years that followed, Brokenwood was a hobby farm, founded in 1970 by a trio of Sydney-based lawyers, Tony Albert, John Beeston and James Halliday, who paid a then record price of $393 a hectare for four hectares of McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, scrubland.
The three city slickers gave Pokolbin old hands great amusement by swapping their pin-stripes for overalls, hacking the scrub away and chopping into the unyielding clay to plant a vineyard.
In 1973 the vines produced their maiden commercial wines made by a three-man team of Halliday, Beeston and marine biologist, wine writer and consultant Nick Bulleid.
That was so until 1982, when ginger-haired, fresh-faced 28-year-old Iain Riggs was recruited as Brokenwood winemaker. Born in Burra, South Australia, he studied at Roseworthy College between 1972 and 1975 and after graduation worked in McLaren Vale wineries and as Hazelmere winemaker in 1982 was crowned McLaren Vale Bushing King for his wine show champion chardonnay.
With more than 38 vintages up to his 2020 retirement as CEO-chief winemaker, he proved himself a king of Hunter wine and an extraordinary ideas man.
Under his leadership Brokenwood was given the highest category - Exceptional - in the Langton's Classification of Australian Wine and the 2018 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz was declared James Halliday's Wine Companion 2021 Australian Wine of the Year with a score of 99 points and, also with 99 points, the 2014 ILR Reserve Semillon was awarded Semillon of the Year.
With the tenet of "making great wine and having fun", Iain led Brokenwood to be one of Australia's premier fine wine brands with an output of 100,000 dozen cases a year made at Pokolbin from Hunter, Beechworth, McLaren Vale, Orange, Cowra, Canberra and Central Ranges grapes.
With "Riggsie" as a Brokenwood director and consultant, the wines are now in the skilled hands of people he mentored - senior winemaker Stuart Hordern, winemaker Kate Sturgess and vineyard manager Katrina "Kat" Barry.
They took five 2023 Hunter Wine Show gold medals, the unreleased 2023 Oakey Creek Vineyard Semillon and 2022 Single Vineyard Tallawanta Semillon and the current-release at brokenwood.com.au and McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, winery the 2022 1899 Old Vines Semillon, 2017 ILR Reserve Semilllon, and 2021 Single Vineyard Tallawanta Shiraz reviewed below.
ILR SEMILON'S PERFECT POISE
PRICE: $100
FOOD MATCH: seared scallops
AGEING: 10 years
RATING: 5.5 STARS
FROM the Brokenwood-managed Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, Trevena vineyard, the Brokenwood 2017 ILR Reserve Semillon has green-tinted straw hues, enticing jasmine scents and poised lime front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows kiwifruit, apple, sherbet, mineral and honey and toast and a finish of slatey acid. The five-year bottle-aged ILRs were launched in 1992 and honour Iain Leslie Riggs.
DELIGHTS OF 1899 VINES
PRICE: $66
FOOD MATCH: salt and pepper squid
AGEING: seven years
RATING: 5 STARS
THIS pale straw, jasmine-scented Brokenwood 2022 1899 Old Vines Vineyard Semillon has fresh, elegant grapefruit front-palate flavour, middle-palate lemon curd, sherbet, gunmetal and nascent honey and a flinty acid finish. Brokenwood produced it from grapes bought from an Oakey Creek Road, Pokolbin, vineyard acquired in the 2022 Drayton Family Wines partition by veteran vigneron Greg Drayton.
TALLAWANTA'S STELLA SHIRAZ
PRICE: $150
FOOD MATCH: beef burgundy
AGEING: 10 years
RATING: 5.5 STARS
THE Brokenwood 2021 Tallawanta Vineyard Shiraz is from a century-old Broke Road shiraz and semillon vineyard over which Brokenwood in 2014 got an open-ended lease from the Roche family. This superb 2021 has 13% alcohol, bright garnet hues and potpourri aromas. The front palate shows intense blackcurrant flavour, the middle plum, spice, mint, cloves and mocha oak and an earthy tannin finish.
