Tyrrells HVD Single Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon

Description

Tyrrells HVD Single Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon is made with grapes from Tyrrell’s HDV Vineyards – the HDV stands for Hunter Valley Distillery. Hunter Valley Semillon is a style of white wine that will age gracefully for several years. Tyrrells Single Vineyard wines are only produced in the best vintages.

Tyrrells wines was founded by Edward Tyrrell in 1858 and, since then, it has grown into one of Australia’s largest and most prestigious wine companies. From a base of 60 acres of vines in the Hunter Valley, the estate has grown to 900 acres of premium vineyards in Limestone Coast, McLaren Vale in South Australia and the Heathcote region in Victoria. The Tyrrell family owns eight of the 11 oldest vineyards in NSW and uses fruit from these ancient vines to craft the wines that make up their Sacred Sites series. Today Tyrrells Wines is in the hands of the 5th generation winemaker Chris Tyrrell who took over from his father, Bruce Tyrrell, and who continues to produce top quality wines and build on his forebears’ success. They are arguably most famous for their superb, long-lived Hunter Valley Semillons.

The Hunter Valley Distillery vineyard lies some 3.5 km to the north of the winery and is situated alongside Moore’s Creek. It was planted in  1908 by the Hunter Valley Distillery Company at a time when the demand for spirits and fortified wines was high. The vineyard was leased by Penfolds who managed to purchase it in 1948. Murray Tyrrell had always reckoned that the site was one of the best white vineyard sites in the Hunter, so it was considered a great purchase when Tyrrell’s acquired it in 1982/83. The vineyard sits at 85 metres above sea leave. The soils are light, sandy and well-draining, perfect for Semillon. The vines here are dry-grown but are rarely stressed and their roots are almost continuously in water. The vineyard is planted with Semillon (4.29 hectares) and Chardonnay (1.1 hectares).

The grapes for the Tyrrells HVD Single Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon are handpicked and then lightly crushed before a relatively cool fermentation in stainless steel. After a short period on gross lees, the wine was racked and left to mature in stainless steel for a further five months before bottling.

Tyrrells HVD Single Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon shows floral fruit in youth, which moves towards biscuity characters with age. The palate is generally softer-bodied with smoother acids than Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon.