Hunter Valley Winemakers

WISE WORDS FROM THE

Ever wondered what the brains behind your favourite wines actually drink on their nights off? explore DRINKS sat down with some of the Hunter Valley’s leading winemakers and experts to find out their go-to drops, what to expect from their latest vintages and what’s on their horizons business-wise.

ADRIAN SPARKS

Winemaker, Mount Pleasant Wines

What are your current vintage releases?

We’ve just launched our 2017 Lovedale 1946 Vines Semillon, a small parcel from the old vines released young, and the only time people get to taste Lovedale as a young wine. Wines made from old vines have much more power and intensity than wine from younger vines, and to taste these young and fresh is an experience.

We also have our 2009 Elizabeth Semillon available at the cellar door. This is a beautiful wine from a vintage that was a stand out for a cool ripening period and dryness, which has resulted in an elegant, intense, beautifully aged wine that is drinking perfectly right now.

Plus we have just released the 2016 Mountain C from our Mountain Range collection that celebrates Maurice O’Shea’s legacy of naming wines by style, rather than variety. It’s a lightbodied dry red, full of vibrant red fruits and subtle spice.

What are you drinking right now?

There are so many interesting and innovative winemakers doing some really great things at the moment, we’re so spoilt for choice! Something I’m getting really excited about going into summer, however, are the young semillons. It’s such a bright and refreshing style, full of elegant citrus fruit flavours that pair so beautifully with amazing Aussie seafood.

Another great summer drinking option is lightly chilled, young pinot noirs. It’s a great drink for people who aren’t big white wine drinkers, and want to enjoy a red in summer. The bright red fruits and silky tannins become incredibly moreish after some chill time in the fridge.

Another favourite of mine, that can’t be overlooked during summer, is the great Aussie chardonnay. From the old school buttery style, to the more austere and mineral-based marvels of the southern states, chardonnay never fails to surprise me with the different ways it can be expressed and enjoyed.

What’s new in your region and/or your winery?

Mount Pleasant has always been known for its innovative nature, ever since Maurice O’Shea was making table wines when Australia was a fortified nation. This innovation is something we’ve been thrilled to carry through in how we develop our winemaking and vineyards. Most recently, we have invested in some amazing Mediterranean varietals that are thriving in the Hunter, including tempranillo, fiano, sagrantino, mencia and touriga. We already have a selection of these wines in our experimental B-side range, available at our cellar door and online store. Each wine has offered our team the chance to show a different way of looking at Hunter Valley wines, and the results are pretty special.

CHRISTINA TULLOCH

CEO, Tulloch Wines

Which of your current release wines would you recommend drinking now?

The current 2017 Tulloch Verdelho is something we are really excited about. The release of our new current vintage verdelho every year is something we look forward to. It’s a lovely, fresh style of wine great for the Australian lifestyle, and it matches really well with a lot of the foods we eat here. Lively, tropical fruit flavours on the front of the palate but still a nice crisp, zesty finish. And of course, being in the Hunter Valley, our 2017 Hunter River White Semillon and our 2015 Pokolbin Dry Red Shiraz are both wines we’re also excited about. What are you drinking at home currently? Me, personally, I am a chardonnay devotee. I’m currently drinking our 2017 E.M. Limited Release Chardonnay, but we have just put into bottle our 2017 G4 Very Limited Edition Chardonnay and I am looking forward to getting into that. I think Hunter Valley Christina Tulloch chardonnay is at a really exciting place – the way it’s evolved and all the beautiful myriad of different styles. What’s next from your winery/region? Our next big focus is developing the range, so verdelho, semillon, chardonnay and shiraz out of the Hunter Valley. But we also have a big focus on our alternative and emerging varietals out of emerging regions from NSW, so tempranillo, vermentino, pinot gris from Orange and barbera, zinfandel and sangiovese from the Hill Tops. We’re having a great time working with the growers and improving those varieties each year. Andrew Duff

ANDREW DUFF

Winemaker, Tempus Two

What are your current vintage release wines and how are they looking?

Leading into the Christmas period and with the weather starting to warm up, the two best value varietals that we have out at the moment would be the Tempus Two Varietal Pinot Grigio and our Tempus Two Varietal Rosé; just fantastic drinking wines, they’re perfect for this time of year in Australia. The pinot grigio is tight, and I think it’s, hopefully, chasing that true pinot grigio crispness and the rosé is just lovely and generous, and you can have it at room temperature or chilled. Both are sensational wines.

What are you drinking right now?

It’s the Tempus Two Varietal Rosé. Rosés are certainly the drink of choice at the moment; nothing imported or from Europe, (I mean they’re lovely wines, don’t get me wrong) but the wines we’re producing in Australia like the pinot noir rosé out of the Adelaide Hills are even better. I think they say, “50 shades of rosé,” so it’s perfect for summertime.

What’s new in your region and/or at your winery?

So we’ve launched the new platinum range, which is three wines: we’ve got a McLaren Vale Shiraz, an Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir and an Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. It’s really cool to see a new label. We have only been around for about 20 years, but this is our first new release for a label in a long time, and it’s really exciting to be part of it.

MICHAEL HATCHER

Sales & Marketing Manager, Tumblong Hills

What are your current vintage releases?

We have three rather significant wines joining our ‘Table of Plenty’ range. ‘Table of Plenty’ is a range that exclusively features grape varieties of Mediterranean origin. We are releasing a fiano, sangiovese rosé and a sangiovese red table wine to complement the existing barbera and nebbiolo.

We’ve seen that our consumers seek a journey and an experience in the wines they drink, and many have found the ‘Table of Plenty’ range a welcome and interesting change to the usual shiraz and cabernet. What are you drinking right now?

I follow the wines that feature at wine shows, to some extent. Cockfighter’s Ghost Sangiovese received praise in Melbourne last week, and it’s a pretty fine drink. My first winemaking mentor in the industry, Greg Gallagher, recently won a Best Riesling trophy, so when it arrives I’m looking forward to a lazy Sunday afternoon with a bottle of that.

What’s the next big focus for Tumblong Hills?

With our distributors, Cru Wines, we will continue to deliver our flavour diverse ‘Table of Plenty’ wines as the perfect, affordable dining accompaniment. And of course, the festive season wouldn’t be quite so special if it wasn’t for Champagne! I’m really loving Champagne rosé at the moment, it’s got enough body and flavour to keep me interested, while still delivering that impeccable elegance that only comes from Méthode Champenoise.

XANTHE HATCHER

Winemaker, Cockfighter’s Ghost and Agnew Wines

Which of your current release wines would you recommend drinking now?

2017 in the Hunter was an amazing vintage, and Hunter winemakers don’t say that all that often. It was warm, and it was dry and everything ripened right when we wanted it to ripen, which is a little

bit unusual for the Hunter. We just bottled our 2017 Pooles Rock Chardonnay and that’s a real favourite style of mine. I guess it would be called a traditional Hunter chardonnay. Another one is a red also from 2017, and it’s quite unusual that we have bottled it already. It’s our 2017 Audrey Wilkinson Tempranillo, and it’s all grown off our vineyard in the Hunter. We’re making it in a style that is fresh, with a medium weight and really lively. It’s only spent six months in larger oak so there is a lot of cherry, strawberry, really bright fresh juicy fruit and only a little bit of oak, so it’s a really nice and approachable style of red.

What are you drinking right now?

The only thing in our fridge is chardonnay. It’s mainly because chardonnay is so diverse. We drink chardonnay from all over the country and across the globe. There are so many different styles of chardonnay - you can never get bored of it.

MARK RICHARDSON

Red Winemaker, Tyrrell’s Wines

Which of your current release wines would you recommend drinking now?

For a while now the best wines in my opinion as the winemaker have been the Hunter Valley range for Tyrrell’s. Right now the 2017 Hunter Valley Semillon. We have come out of a great vintage and it looks amazing, its bright and fresh, and young semillon is awesome. It’s the same pedigree as Vat 1 but at a much better price point. And in the same vein, we’ve got the 2014 Hunter Valley Shiraz. 2014 is that awesome vintage that the Hunter Valley has been banging on about for a little while now. These wines are $20 recommended retail, so from our stable, they’re the best value wines by a long shot.

The 2017 Hunter Valley Semillon; it’s a young semillon with bright, lemon spectrum flavours and really juicy acids. It’s dry, it’s fresh and it’s great with seafood, and pretty much anything. It’s also less than 11 per cent alcohol.

The 2014 Hunter Valley Shiraz is a savory, medium-bodied wine, a classic style of the Hunter Valley, but it’s a little bit more than the average vintage. It’s a bit more of a European style with softer tannins - an awesome food pairing wine.

What are you drinking at home currently?

At home, it’s chardonnay. Chardonnay in Australia, is really on point at the moment. I’m drinking chardonnay from our Tyrrell’s portfolio, but also lots of other chardonnays from Australia, and the odd European in there too.

What’s next from your winery/region?

Tyrrell’s have been making wine over 150 years so what’s new is old and what’s old is new again. What’s interesting at the moment is we’re doing some gamay from Len Evans’ property in the Hunter, from a 40 year old gamay vineyard. This year we have made a gamay and it’s out in the market place, in small amounts, and also some sangiovese from, 30 year old vineyards. We’re producing small amounts of those under our special release range and a gewürztraminer in that range as well. These three are something different to our normal sémillon, shiraz and chardonnay and they’re looking great. Really lovely, interesting drinks.

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