Hunter Valley Wine Show 2015 results: celebrating provenance

The Hunter Valley Wine Show 2015 : Bruce & Johnno Tyrrell accept Iain Riggs Wine of Provenance award for Tyrrell’s Vineyards Johnno’s Shiraz – 2004, 2009, 2013

On Friday a 420 strong audience turned out in best bib and tucker for the Clear Image Hunter Valley Wine Show 2015 Awards lunch.  Even the winemakers scrubbed up well – in fact I didn’t recognise some of them in their civvies!  But old habits die hard; Australian winemakers are a laid back bunch when not on duty.  As MC John Mangos joked, he’d never seen a run sheet with a finish time of “somewhere between 4 & 7pm.”

Which goes some way to explaining why I felt like a local on Friday.  During harvest, winemakers have to keep an eye on the sky as well as the ripening process, 2015 being a case in point.  With stormy weather in prospect, Brokenwood’s Stu Horden told me he spent a tense night debating whether to pick Shiraz from the Tallawanta vineyard – Brokenwood’s first harvest of this acclaimed site.  The following morning, Saturday 24 January, he fired the starting pistol and picked the eastern parcel – “the only red we got off before lots of water.”

Brokenwood’s Stu Horden in the Tallawanta vineyard

As for me, with a 3.30pm transfer to Sydney to catch my flight, it was a case of keeping an eye on the clock and staying focused on getting the job done without nerves getting the better of me.  The job?  Delivering a speech and presenting my very own Hunter Valley Wine Show 2015 “Silver Bullet” award – quite a responsibility with several hundred entries to choose from.

I can report that both missions were accomplished despite Sydney’s Friday evening gridlock.  And more importantly, a serious swag-bag of silverware was dished out as the Gold Medal winners flowed over lunch.  You’ll find the trophy winners listed below followed by my silver bullet winner and runners up (and you can the full results here) – serial (award winning) offenders include Brokenwood, Tyrrell’s and First Creek.

Hunters/terroirists

Prime soils – limestone marine fossils at  John Davis’ Tallavera Grove estate

But it would be remiss of me not to comment on the most striking facet of the awards, the show, indeed my fortnight in the Hunter Valley.  With a predominance of small producers, there is an acute focus on and celebration of sites good enough to have their name on the label.  Sites which, whether grower or producer owned, stamp wines with their very own postcode, even street number.  A postcode which evidently correlates with quality – according to the show’s Chair, P J Charteris, a remarkable 76% of 2014 Shiraz entries from named (single site) vineyards won medals (versus an overall 62% strike rate for Shiraz in the acclaimed 2014 vintage).

It’s fascinating to think that some of those sites are nearly as old as the wine show itself (which started in 1848), so we may have been judging the same fruit sources as 19th century judges!   Take Tyrrell’s Old Patch Shiraz from the Stevens family’s vineyard (planted in 1867), Tyrrell’s Four Acres Shiraz (planted in 1879 by founder Edward Tyrrell) and Mount Pleasant’s Old Hill vineyard (planted by Charles King in 1880).

Over a third of the show’s classes are dedicated to named vineyard wines, moreover the last two classes required us to judge a minimum 10 year spread of three vintages of named site wines (first white, then red) to identify the winner of the Iain Riggs (of Brokenwood) Wines of Provenance Award.  While Tyrrell’s scooped that prize with Tyrrell’s Vineyards Johnno’s Shiraz 2004, 2009 and 2013 (from a vineyard planted in 1908),  Riggs himself must have been pretty stoked.  Not only did Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2014 win a fistful of golds, including best named vineyard award, but also the James Busby Memorial Trophy for Best Mature Three-Year-Old and Older Shiraz went to a wine from the Tallawanta vineyard (Peppertree Tallawanta Vineyard Shiraz 2011).

Soil mapping: John Davis with P J Charteris & Usher Tinkler

Speaking of Peppertree, I met with owner John Davis, a geologist, the previous week to talk about the factors which contribute to vineyard greatness in the Hunter.  I was surprised to learn that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the Hunter does not have volcanic soils.  Rather its red soils are terra rossa – clay over limestone.

For Davis, limestone is key to great wine quality because calcium carbonate is good for a higher soil pH (which enhances nutrient availability), plus limestone’s porosity allows for good root penetration, drainage and oxygen ingress.  Since around 2000, the geologist/winemaker has been involved in a research project with University of Sydney studying the Hunter’s soils.  The next step is to secure funding to enable the project to become more focused around the impact of soil type on wine quality and style. I wish Davis the best of luck with it – similar projects have certainly helped to put a spotlight on the Barossa’s and McLaren Vale’s sub-regional and single site wines.  Surely it’s a no brainer?

2015 Clear Image Hunter Valley Wine Show Trophy Winners

Picking up the first of  First Creek’s trophies, Liz Jackson, winemaker with Tim Murray, President of Hunter Valley Wine Show Committee

Marshall-Flannery Trophy: Best Current Semillon

First Creek Wines 2015 Premium Semillon (Entry 1- 44)

George Wyndham Memorial Trophy: Best Current and One-Year-Old Chardonnay

First Creek Wines 2014 Winemaker’s Reserve Chardonnay (Entry 9-6)

J.Y. (Jay) Tulloch Trophy: Best Verdelho

Briar Ridge Vineyard 2015 The Dam Verdelho (Entry 3-3)

Best Other White Trophy

Bimbadgen Estate 2015 Vermentino (Entry 4- 9)

Henry John Lindeman Memorial Trophy: Best Two–Year-Old and Older Chardonnay

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2013 Belford Chardonnay (Entry 26-12)

Alexander Munro Memorial Trophy: Best Current and One-Year-Old Shiraz

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Graveyard Shiraz (Entry 29-27)

Ed Jouault Memorial Trophy: Best One-Year-Old Dry Semillon

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Trevena Vineyard Semillon (Entry 24-18)

Elliott Family Trophy: Best Two-Year-Old Shiraz

Briar Ridge Vineyard 2013 Dairy Hill Single Vineyard Shiraz

Best Other Red Trophy

Agnew Wines Audrey Wilkinson 2014 Winemaker’sTempranillo (12-10)

James Busby Memorial Trophy: Best Mature Three-Year-Old and Older Shiraz

Pepper Tree Wines 2011 Tallawanta Single Vineyard Shiraz

McGuigan Family Trophy: Best Mature Two-Year–Old and older Semillon

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2006 Vat 1 Semillon (Entry 13-52)

Doug Galbraith Memorial Trophy: Best Sweet White Wine

No Trophy Awarded

Premium Vintage Sparkling Wine

No Trophy Awarded

Trevor Drayton Memorial Trophy: Best Fortified Wine

No Trophy Awarded

John Lewis Newcastle Herald Trophy: Best Museum Red

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2007 Stevens Shiraz (Entry 22-21)

Graham Gregory Memorial Trophy: Best Museum White

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2005 Belford Semillon (Entry 21-25)

Hector Tulloch Memorial Trophy: Best Shiraz

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Graveyard Shiraz (Entry 29-27)

Innovative Red Wine Trophy

Margan Family Wines 2014 Breaking Ground Shiraz Mourvedre (Entry 35-3)

Maurice O’Shea Memorial Trophy: Best Semillon

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2006 Vat 1 Semillon (Entry 13-52)

Murray Tyrrell Chardonnay Trophy: Best Chardonnay

First Creek Wines 2014 Winemaker’s Reserve Chardonnay (Entry 9-6)

Drayton Family Trophy: Best Named Vineyard Red Wine

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Graveyard Shiraz (Entry 29-27)

Tyrrell Family Trophy: Best Named Vineyard White Wine

McLeish Estate 2007 Semillon (Entry 24-45)

Len Evans Trophy: Best Named Vineyard Wine

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Graveyard Shiraz (29-27)

Petrie-Drinan Trophy: Best White Wine of the Show

Tyrrell’s Vineyards 2006 Vat 1 Semillon (Entry 13-52)

Doug Seabrook Memorial Trophy: Best Red Wine of the Show

Brokenwood Wines 2014 Graveyard Shiraz (Entry 29-27)

Iain Riggs Wine of Provenance Provenance

Tyrrell’s Vineyards Johnno’s Shiraz – 2004, 2009, 2013

My Silver Bullet shortlist/winner

Andrew Margan of Margan with the silver bullet award

Shiraz is the Hunter’s principal red wine grape and with very good reason.  But as I discovered, the Hunter has a few surprises up its sleeve.  My Silver Bullet shortlist focused on other red wines styles which I reckoned refresh the Hunter brand whilst retaining a strong regional thumbprint.

In third place:

Agnew Wines Audrey Wilkinson Wienmakers Selection Tempranillo 2014 – for me the strong regional thumbprint in this alternative variety is its medium body and a freshness which is lacking in many of the Australian single varietal Tempranillos I’ve encountered.  With low natural acidity, it’s not an easy variety to pull off solo, even in Iberia where it’s invariably blended.  So congratulations to Jeff Byrne and Xanthe Hatcher for producing a wine with such strong varietal and regional expression.

Runner up:

Briar Ridge Vineyard H.R.B. Shiraz/Pinot Noir 2013 – H.R.B. is short for Hunter River Burgundy, a description of old.  This is a fresh and mighty pretty take on O’Shea’s tradition of blending the real McCoy with Hunter “Burgundy.” The grapes come from clay over limestone soils, just like Burgundy’s Pinot Noir – a fine illustration of John Davis’ work on geology and site.  The Pinot Noir blended seamlessly with the Dairy Hill vineyard’s winsomely perfumed, red-fruited Shiraz.  Congratulations go to Davis and winemaker Gwyn Olsen.

The winner:

Like I said Tempranillo is not an easy variety to pull off solo and a trend which I’m excited to see developing across Australia is the use of alternative varieties like Tempranillo in uniquely Australia blends – here with Mourvedre and a dash of Hunter Shiraz of course!  What excited me about Margan Family Wines Breaking Ground Tempranillo, Graciano & Shiraz 2014 blend was the Australian clarity of fruit wed to the Hunter’s freshness – a terrific medium bodied style with great length and line.  Well done!