HKD$300.00
Excellent pale tawny colour of orange/yellow brown. A lifted nutty, vanillin aroma carried on obvious alcohol. There is rancio and as a tasting term is a bit hard to pin down. With exposure to air and being in small barrels, a certain degree of maderisation occurs. Not unlike caramelized honey. The palate is rich and luscious, partly from the retained sugar and partly from the concentration of flavours from the evaporation. The alcohol and acid gives a clean lingering finish.
One of the joys of winemaking is the occasional foray into wine styles that are unfortunately more and more overlooked. Once upon a time every Australian winemaker had to be well versed on fortified wines. Iain Riggs well remembers that his first duties at Bleasdale in the early 1970s was making base wines for, what was then termed, tawny, ruby and vintage port, along with fortified Verdelho and Palomino for Maderia styles. Even at Hazelmere Estate, in the early 80s, Grenache was fortified for release in the distant future as tawny style port.
Fortification is the adding of spirit, usually 96% SVR or 60 to 80% brandy spirit to stop the fermentation with the resultant wine retaining a desired sugar level. What used to be known as vintage port goes straight to bottle. All other styles are barrel aged. This process changes the colour to a real ‘tawny’ and through exposure to air takes on a rancio character and often a concentration of sugar and acid.
Brokenwood’s first barrel of fortified wine, a Semillon was in 1986. Since then various wines have been made, with the major leap occurring in 2003 when a large parcel of Verdelho was left at Cowra to fully ripen before being trucked to Brokenwood for crushing and fortifying. Now after many years of accumulating odd barrels our first Tawny blend has been bottled.
Clean fully ripe grapes are essential. A range of residual sugar allows blending options down the track. Unlike table wine the barrels are often stored in a reasonably warm place to allow evaporation and the development of the desired rancio character.
Perfect with cheese or chocolate petit fours. Or even just a coffee.
Drinking well now but will improve with further bottle age.
HKD$420.00
This wine has a burnished gold colour and lifted glace fruit/peel aromas. With the Botrytis the decision was made to age the wine in oak for a few months. This adds extra complexity and depth. Although low in alcohol, it has a luscious mouth feel from the retained sugar. Crème brulee and peel flavours continue on the palate supported by a zesty citrus acid. A superb dessert rich style without any cloying characters.
This wine is from a specially selected parcel of Semillon grapes that had a percentage of Botrytis or Noble Rot as it is sometimes known. A combination of the Botrytis and raisin fruit has allowed a luscious dessert style to be made.
The Botrytris infection of the grapes results in two things – one being the dehydration of the berry which causes concentration of fruit flavour and well as sugar and two being the added flavour (in a positive sense) of the Botrytis mould itself.
The raisin fruit usually requires a period of ‘soaking’ so that when pressed the high sugar juice is extracted. Sulphur and chilling is used to prevent wild yeast gaining hold. The ferment is usually slow due to the high sugar. The decision to stop the ferment (by chilling) is made depending on the balance of acid alcohol and sugar. This style is fermented in stainless steel and bottled immediately to retain freshness and characters.
Fresh fruit, especially peaches, light dessert or over ice cream.
Drinking well now but will improve with further bottle age.
HKD$300.00
This wine has a burnished gold colour and lifted glace fruit/peel aromas. With the Botrytis the decision was made to age the wine in oak for a few months. This adds extra complexity and depth. Although low in alcohol, it has a luscious mouth feel from the retained sugar. Crème brulee and peel flavours continue on the palate supported by a zesty citrus acid. A superb dessert rich style without any cloying characters.
This wine is from a specially selected parcel of Semillon grapes that had a percentage of Botrytis or Noble Rot as it is sometimes known. A combination of the Botrytis and raisin fruit has allowed a luscious dessert style to be made.
The Botrytris infection of the grapes results in two things – one being the dehydration of the berry which causes concentration of fruit flavour and well as sugar and two being the added flavour (in a positive sense) of the Botrytis mould itself.
The raisin fruit usually requires a period of ‘soaking’ so that when pressed the high sugar juice is extracted. Sulphur and chilling is used to prevent wild yeast gaining hold. The ferment is usually slow due to the high sugar. The decision to stop the ferment (by chilling) is made depending on the balance of acid alcohol and sugar. This style is fermented in stainless steel and bottled immediately to retain freshness and characters.
Fresh fruit, especially peaches, light dessert or over ice cream.
Drinking well now but will improve with further bottle age.
Sold Out - HKD$200.00
This wine has a cool year 10% alcohol and a beautiful green/yellow colour. Great aromas (that jump out of the glass) of fresh apple and tropical fruits. These carry to the palate, and given a bit more prominence due to the slightly riper grapes. The sweetness is balanced by the fresh apple acidity that runs through to the finish.
If we have said it once, we have said it a million times, the word normal just doesn’t exist for the Hunter Valley. There was a three week turn around in picking compared to 2014, and most Semillon was off in the last week of January. It was a very dry winter of 2014 with only 54mm of rain from May to July. A very good budburst and spring, but then a cold and wet December resulting in quite large canopies and disease pressure. Thankfully all of our Semillon is handpicked and the vineyard team did a great job of getting clean, sound fruit in. This vintage is stylistically on song, but a smaller production of Semillon than usual. All fruit was harvested before the damaging East Coast low wreaked havoc on the Hunter Valley. Excellent colours with plenty of luminous greens and bright acidity a feature.
Brokenwood has quite a history of Late Picked styles starting in 1983 and we have used Semillon, Gewurztraminer from the Hunter and Riesling from McLaren Vale. The fruit is allowed to get a bit riper and then the fermentation stopped when there was a perfect balance between acid, sugar and alcohol. Fermentation in stainless steel and using cultured yeast. Bottled in May 2013.
Fresh fruit and sunshine or an apple flan.
A vibrant wine style best consumed over the short term.
Subscribe to our newsletter and always be the first to hear about what is happening.
© 2023 MyWineBarr
