Our Hunter Valley Shiraz was made from grapes grown on some of the top blocks on the Tyrrell’s estate and surrounding area, which have an average vine age of 40 years and are mostly dry grown. The autumn and winter months of 2020 saw the worst drought in a generation be broken with substantial rainfall, which led into an outstanding growing season for the 2022 vintage. A cool summer then gave us even, stress-free ripening with some heat around Australia Day that was perfectly timed at the final stages of ripening. With an early budburst and later than normal harvesting, the fruit had a longer than normal hang time, which meant that all of the fruit had wonderful flavours balanced by a high natural acidity. Our Hunter Valley Shiraz is made to the same high standards that our flagship Vat 9 Shiraz receives. The fruit was destemmed, but not crushed, to ensure as many whole berries as possible made it to the fermenter. The wine was then matured in older, large format French oak casks. These 2,700L casks highlight the fruit purity whilst making sure that oak isn’t the dominant character. A modern, medium-bodied Australian Shiraz. The nose shows bright red fruits and savoury spice, which follows onto the palate. Primary, bright fruits balanced by soft, savoury tannins and a crunchy acidity adds to the wines complexity.