Preview: Brokenwood 2014 Single Vineyard Shirazes & a Graveyard mini-vertical

A trophy-laden Stuart Horden of Borkenwood; photo credit Cessnock Advertiser

Back in 2010 when I ventured into Brokenwood’s cavernous barrel “hall,” it was to celebrate the famous Hunter boutique winery’s 40^th birthday.  Over a couple of days, we lucky guests tasted extensive verticals of Brokenwood’s Semillon, ILR Semillon and Graveyard Shiraz.  On the last open pour day, every wine they had ever made was available for inspection – an eye-popping sight.  I’d no idea they made so many Hunter wines, let alone wines from Orange and Beechworth. 

There was cause for celebration in Brokenwood’s  45^th year too.  The 2014 vintage of its flagship red, Graveyard Shiraz, scooped the trophies for Best Shiraz, Best Named Vineyard Red, Best Named Vineyard Wine and Best Red Wine of Show at The Hunter Valley Show in August.  It wasn’t the only Shiraz news pasting big fat smiles on winemakers Iain Riggs’ and Stuart Hordern’s faces this year.  The pair are thrilled to have got their mits on the Tallawanta Vineyard in a serendipidous deal which revolved around the neighbouring golf club’s need for more car parking. Bad luck for Peppertree, the previous incumbent.

Brokenwood’s Stuart Hordern walks and talks me through Tallawanta vineyard

With Tallawanta in the bag (which was planted in 1920), Hordern reckons Brokenwood are now managing three of the Hunter’s best single vineyard Shiraz blocks comfortably (the third being Mistress); all told, they now make four single vineyard Hunter Shirazes.  Like most of the region’s great Shiraz vineyards, Hordern observed, “they edge towards the [Brokenback] range,” which buffers them from the baking afternoon sun.

Tallawanta to the fore. The Graveyard vineyard is on the far side of the golf course.

I visited two of these iconic vineyards with Hordern.  They are a stone’s throw or, perhaps more accurately, a golf swing away from one another (a golf course lies between the Graveyard  and Tallawanta vineyard).  The east-facing Graveyard vineyard was planted in 1968 with cuttings from Mount Pleasant Old Hill vineyard, itself planted in [1880]. It is located bang slap next door to the winery.

With clay soils which, swelling big time, become very compacted and impenetrable (“you could almost kiln it,” observes Hordern), Graveyard is a tough, low yielding site.  It has to be heavily cultivated and only the better-drained top portion of the vineyard qualifies as Graveyard.

The eight hectare Tallawanta vineyard’s gravelly, stony soil could not be more different.  For Hordern, it plays a key role in the site’s precocity at harvest because the stones and gravel retain and reflect heat and make for better drainage, so the vines never get their feet wet.  In consequence, Tallawanta’s Shiraz ripens at least 2-3 weeks earlier than at Graveyard.  Its shadier, east-facing aspect is particularly precocious because the vines don’t suffer from hydric stress.

Back in the barrel hall, a sample tasting of 2015 Shiraz from wood demonstrated how Tallawanta’s earlier ripening cycle can make all the difference in a tricky year.  Aged in 2800l foudres, the bright purple Tallawanta’s fresh, flowing red and black fruits parried energetically with iron filing fine tannins. Paler and less intense, the Graveyard barrel sample had shorter grain, firmer tannins with some pepperiness/greenness to the back palate.

Vividly likening the Tallawanta vineyard to a mudlark – “it likes cooler, tougher years” – Hordern cast his mind back to this year’s harvest and a tense night debating whether to pick Tallawanta the next day in light of a bleak forecast. 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.” It was a salutary lesson.  Pressed off before even a berry of Graveyard Shiraz was picked, the winemaker reflected “it’s a very good reminder to look for an excuse to pick.” 

It remains to be seen how the 2015s will turn out, but the reputation of the 2014 Shirazes preceded them.  For Riggs  “[T]he feature of 2014 is the strength across the board from all producers. Ripe tannins, medium bodied wines of great flavour and finesse. Best since 1965? Close to it.”  Though the wines are yet to be released and still very young and tight, with a quick half hour to taste Brokenwood’s single vineyard Shirazes, I can confirm that the 2014 vintage did not disappoint.  Like 2011 Douro reds, Brokenwood’s 2014s have great concentration, but the balance of a stars’ aligned vintage.  A concluding mini-vertical of Graveyard Shiraz featuring those recent vintages which impressed me most during the show (2014, 2013, 2011) proved a useful benchmark too.

Brokenwood Vegas Block Shiraz 2014 (Hunter Valley)

The Vegas block is so-called because, at some expense, it was re-planted twice – “millionaire’s row,” joked Hordern.  The block’s very young Shiraz vines (planted 2007) are co-planted with around 3% of Trebbiano and Pinot Noir (the latter taken from Mount Pleasant’s 1923 Mother Vine block). Chief Winemaker Iain Riggs explains, “for Vegas, we were after an even lighter style than the medium bodied reds we already make” (the Pinot Noir and Trebbiano will contribute higher acid). Brokenwood are by no means alone in pursuing a so-called Light Dry Red style using Pinot Noir – a Maurice O’Shea technique of the 40s and 50s.  Shedding light on this retro-trend, Hordern observed “it’s only recently people felt unapologetic about medium-bodied wines; we need to speak about where we’re from and confidently not apologetically.” This wine was fermented in a 2 tonne open fermenter with gentle hand plunging twice daily and matured  in 100% old French oak Puncheons (500l) for 15 months.  It is markedly red in colour and fruit spectrum – a firm, bright distinctly medium-bodied Shiraz with attractive, tell-tale whole bunch crunchiness. Hordern told me this technique isn’t a natural fit year in year out in the Hunter but, with 2014’s stand out tannin maturity, “you could pick when you wanted and dabble with it.”  He used 30% here.  13.5%  Release date/R.R.P. t.b.c.

Brokenwood Mistress Block Shiraz 2014 (Hunter Valley)

This steep, east-facing, relatively cool vineyard is adjacent to Audrey Wilkinson “and actually has topsoil – chocolate alluvial soil which you want to eat” says Hordern.  The oldest plantings date back to 1968.  Where he describes Graveyard Shiraz as coiled, Mistress Block is “our Hunter McLaren…with lushness, ripeness and generosity.”  Though most certainly fleshier going through, it has a long tail of fine tannins which gives line and length to its intense red fruits.  This wine, the most sensual of the four 2014s, was matured in 100% French oak for 15 months, including 35% larger format (500l) puncheons, approximately 15% new oak. 14%  Release date – March 2016/RRP $110/bottle

Brokenwood Verona Vineyard Shiraz 2014 (Hunter Valley)

Planted directly across the road from the Graveyard vineyard, it has the same soil profile as Graveyard but a more southerly aspect, so it’s a little cooler and ripens a little later. The Verona vineyard has approx 0.5ha of dry grown vines planted in 1968 on poor soils which, according to Riggs, “in good years, not too dry like 2014, forms basis of Verona Shiraz.”  The rest of the vineyard is younger – planted to cuttings from the Graveyard Shiraz in 2003.  Because of these poor soils, it’s on drip irrigation “to keep vines alive,” emphasises Riggs, and not for volume. Horden told me these younger vines are really starting to hit its straps in terms of consistency; Riggs agrees, saying they’re “better balanced.”    This vintage has a really attractive translucency and brightness to its red and black fruits, which are underscored by present but fine, powdery tannins, lending depth and definition.  It was 100% de-stemmed and aged in a 2 year old large format (3500L) 100% French oak cask for 15 months.  14%  Release date February 2016/RRP $90/bottle

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2014 (Hunter Valley)

First planted to Shiraz in 1970, Brokenwood Graveyard has developed an iconic reputation, which is perhaps why Hordern tolds me “I would never de-stem Graveyard – those four blocks don’t need me.”  The 2014 is a terrific exercise in raw power – dark, brooding, savoury (with incipient Hunter linseed and leather) and sinewy, with tightly coiled energy – like a rope pulled taut, with exquisite tension between its threads of (bright but impenetrable) fruit, acid and tannin.  A red of impressive stature.  Hordern reckons that the optimum drinking window for Graveyard’s tightly coiled Shiraz is between 10-20 years. I sense this wine will very easily last 20 and has the tannin quality to perform well at an earlier stage.  It was matured in 100% French oak for 15 months, including 50% larger format (500l) puncheons, with approximately 20% new oak.  13.5%  Release date June 2016/RRP $250/bottle.

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2013 (Hunter Valley)

More expressive because it’s a year older and because it’s from a less concentrated, albeit very good year – as Hordern rightly points out “2013s are a classic shoulder year.”  If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d have thought the ’13 had a touch of whole bunch.  It has a hint of green and a lively peppery note to nose and palate.  In the mouth, it reveals sweet black and red fruits, well balanced by bright acidity and lifted spice. The tannins are ripe and supple like the fruit – more Hunter Burgundy if you will. This wine was aged in 100% French oak, including 10% larger format (500l) puncheons, approximately 40% new.   Seems quite amenable next to the 2014, but make no mistake – lovely concentration and depth.

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2011 (Hunter Valley)

With fruit so tightly coiled as to rebuff you, the 2014’s savouriness peeked out precociously.  As for the 2011, layers of savoury leather/boot polish, liquorice and smoked meat mingle delicately and deliciously with its sweet, concentrated core of black berry and currant fruit; a lick of eucalyptus brings cool lift to the finish.  Very good acid line and fine but firm tannins (that taut rope effect) lend dynamism.  Super long and ultra-poised, with as yet unexplored seams of flavour to unravel.  13.5%

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2004 (Hunter Valley)

Although, as you’d expect, this wine has shifted into a more savoury gear, showing warm earth/tufa and boot polish (the latter building in the mouth).  I still find its red and black berry fruits a touch confit/sweet, like in 2010. Which is surprising given its relatively low alcohol.  The tannins, ripe but abundant, assert themselves going through keeping the fruit on a rail.  But it’s the least exciting journey of the five vintages I tasted.  12.5%

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2002 (Hunter Valley)

I liked this vintage a good deal in 2010.  And I still do.  Of the drier, darker, black fruited persuasion, the 2002 is wonderfully tertiary – bloody, but not bretty, with seamless smoked meat, boot polish, warm earth/tufa, charcoal/clove and roast chesnut to its mellow, autumnal palate.  And yet it retains great agility, with the acidity and tannin to tease apart layers or threads of flavour, as if lengthening a rope, but without compromising its integrity. Holding well.  13.3%