2023 Red Releases

I am very excited and delighted to announce the highly anticipated upcoming release of our new vintage suite of red wines, officially due for release Saturday 17th May 2025.

The 2023 Hunter Valley red wine vintage is, quite simply, outstanding. It is definitely rated as the best since 2018, and those of you in the know will recall how exceptional those wines were upon release.

So, why is the 2023 vintage so highly regarded, I hear you ask?

The La Niña weather conditions of the previous couple of years continued right through to some significant flooding rains in July 2022, providing excellent subsoil moisture for budburst. The first few months of the growing season were also relatively cool and wet, which required diligence from all our growers in terms of maintaining disease-free and healthy canopies. They absolutely prevailed here, and that’s why we are so fortunate to have relationships with such great people and vineyards.

Towards the end of the year, as the vineyards were going through veraison, the conditions changed to mostly warm and dry. The significant diurnal (day/night) temperature differences from mid-December through to harvest led to a long, slow ripening period and one of the latest vintages we’ve experienced for quite a number of years.

The near-perfect weather conditions during the final stages of the ripening period allowed us to sit back and wait for the perfect level of phenological ripeness. The cooler start to the season and extended hang time ultimately led to a slow accumulation of concentrated flavours and ripe tannins, whilst retaining excellent natural acidity.

Just like that trio of great Hunter red vintages from 2017 to 2019, our suite of 2023 Shiraz also sits in the fuller end of the medium-bodied spectrum, with each single vineyard wine beautifully expressing its own unique personality and sense of place. I know most of our loyal customers already have their favourite wines within our range, but I just wanted to flag a couple of new labels and provide some sad news about one of our most beloved vineyards.

Knowing that we can occasionally have some challenging seasons in the Hunter, I occasionally take the approach of “make hay while the sun shines” when we have an exceptional vintage. I had the opportunity to source some excellent fruit from a couple of vineyards on Hermitage Road (very close to our Cellar Door), which has led to two new labels from the 2023 vintage.

The 2023 Vanessa Vale Shiraz is from a block just above the bottling line on Hermitage Road (down the hill to the north of our Cellar Door), planted on a relatively tough red loam/clay-based soil. Despite a relatively minuscule crop, this was one of the last vineyards we picked this season. It sits perfectly in the middle of the medium-bodied spectrum with bright red and blue fruits and a supple tannin structure. The fruit was initially purchased as an excellent potential base for our Synergy Shiraz, but it looked so good we isolated some of the best barrels for this single-vineyard bottling. Unfortunately, the owners of this property saw fit to pull these vines out not long after the 2023 vintage, so this particular single block Shiraz can never be repeated.
Vinous history in a bottle.... Great value here, and definitely worth a look…

We also sourced a tiny parcel of Shiraz from the (former) Mistletoe property on Hermitage Road in 2023. This parcel looked so aromatically vibrant and pretty that we just knew from the outset it would be worthy of a single-vineyard bottling.

But wait, there’s more… We also sourced a tiny parcel of Hunter Touriga Nacional in 2023, with the view of potentially playing around with another Shiraz blend to sit alongside our DJV Shiraz Pinot Noir. It was with the Mistletoe Shiraz parcel that the Touriga just meshed so perfectly, providing a dried spice and floral element to the wine that is utterly compelling. So, here we have our inaugural release of Nova Shiraz Touriga. Whilst our DJV Shiraz Pinot Noir is a tribute to the traditional ‘Hunter River Burgundy’ blends of the past, this new label is (and will continue to be) an expression of more contemporary blending with newer and emerging varietals within the region. Pleasingly, it has already been awarded a Gold medal and trophy for Best Red Blend at the NSW Wine Awards last year.

Last, but certainly not least, 2023 Kiss Shiraz. This wine is always our flagship each vintage, and the single reason for this is those magnificent 56-year-old vines planted (1969) in the heavier clay-based ‘struggle street’ soil at Pokolbin Estate.
Many of you have already heard the devastating news, but if not, it absolutely breaks my heart to let you know that this vineyard is unfortunately about to come to an end. Sold in 2016 to the development group Devcore, plans and civil works are already underway to turn this iconic vineyard into a housing development. The property was purchased based on a development approval dating back to 1997, which has just been sitting in the background as a ‘zombie DA’ for the last 28 years. Unfortunately, there are no legal avenues to dispute the development.

There are still some vines in the ground, but we were not able to manage the vineyard or get a crop in 2025 due to significant earthworks throughout the site. The 2024 vintage Kiss (still currently in barrel) will be the last as we know it.

The 2023 Kiss Shiraz is outstanding. Don’t miss this one. As my tears hit the page, that is all I have to say on this for now.

A Short Footnote

We have taken cuttings from the Kiss vineyard last year, and these are currently planted in our nursery on the Braemore vineyard with the intent to replant a new vineyard somewhere in the future to preserve the genetic stock. Unfortunately, you can’t plant old vines; however, we are also considering attempting to transplant some of the existing old vines elsewhere. We just need to find some appropriate land. Watch this space…

If you have read this far, you will probably realise I haven’t said too much about some of our other new release Shiraz labels — Sweetwater, Dam Block, The Côte, our best barrel blend Elenay, and our second release of the DJV Shiraz Pinot Noir blend. I can confirm they are all outstanding, and those of you who historically love these labels will be absolutely delighted with the new releases. There’s more detail on all our new releases at our website. I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Cheers,
Thommo