AUS: New South Wales Flashcards
Wyndham Estate
Hunter Valley GI
* site of 1st commercial Shiraz cuttings - 1830
* Aus’ oldest continually running winery
Australia’s First Families of Wine
Winery association - 10 members
* goal is to direct the narrative of history, provenance, and quality of Aussie wine. Est. 2009
* Stephen Hanschke is the chair
Brown Brothers
Campbells
D’Arenberg
Henschke
Howard Park
Tyrrell’s
Taylor’s
Tahbilk
Yalumba
Hunter Valley Zone’s 2 rivers
Hunter River
Goulburn River
Hunter Valley Zone latitude/climate
32ºS
Hot subtropical - region 4
* Humid
* Rainy: avg 20in of growing season rain in Hunter Valley - 35 - 40in year overall
* Storms regularly threaten harvest, arriving in late January
New South Wales’ 2 most planted varieties overall?
Chardonnay
Shiraz
New South Wales’ 2 most important geographic features
- Pacific Ocean
- Great Dividing Range: runs the whole coast; blocks cool air and rain
Hunter Valley Zone’s GIs
Hunter Valley GI
- Upper Hunter Valley GI
- Broke Fordwich GI
- Pokolbin GI (home to the big names)
Lower Hunter Valley subregions
GI: Pokolbin, Broke Fordwich
Unofficial:
- Allandale
- Belford
- Dalwood
- Rothbury
Hunter Valley grapes
1 Semillon (likes white alluvial sands)
#2 Chardonnay
#3 Verdelho (thick skins get along with subtropical climate)
#4 Shiraz (red volcanic soils)
Hunter Valley soils
Semillon likes white alluvial sands, Shiraz likes red volcanic soils (water management is important)
Upper Hunter: black silt, dark clay loam
Lower Hunter: Friable loam, red friable duplex soils
Australia’s 1st varietal Chardonnay?
1971 Tyrrell “Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay” Hunter Valley
Hunter Riesling
Semillon
* most planted Hunter Valley grape
* 10-12% ABV, pH around 2.9
* no oak, no lees stirring, bottled fresh and young
* premium editions like Tyrell’s Vat 1 and Brokenwood’s ILR Reserve see extended bottle age before release
Vat 1
Tyrrell’s top Hunter Valley Semillon
* Classic - no oak, no significant lees contact, bottled quickly and always bottle aged 5 years
* Langton’s 1st
edition # of current Langton’s classification? What changes were made with this classification?
8th
* all wines have been released at least 10 vintages and have a “strong presence on the secondary market”
* 100 “Classified” Wines, 19 of which are “1st Classified”
Inspired by BDX’s 1855
Tyrrell, Brokenwood, Mt. Pleasant - located in what Hunter Valley sub-GI?
Pokolbin
Lower Hunter vs Upper Hunter: which is more important?
Lower Hunter is home to all the big names. Pokolbin in particular.
Upper Hunter has a short history, not many producers. Pendfolds was the first to plant in 1960.
Maurice O’Shea
Hunter Valley hero
* key figure for modern Aus wine
* studied at Montepellier, familiar with French wines, went back to Aus
* his family settled in the Hunter Valley, bought a vineyard. He renamed it Mt. Pleasant and made dry wines when stickies were the favored one
ILR Reserve
Brokenwood
Hunter Valley Semillon
Classic - no oak, no significant lees contact, no malo, bottled quickly and held back for 6 years