Wine Composition
100% Semillon
Winemakers Comments
The Vat 1 Semillon is only ever made using fruit from the best old-vine, dry-grown vineyards. These blocks, the oldest of which was planted in 1923, feature sandy, free-draining soils that are ideal for growing Semillon and give the Vat 1 its unique character.
This vintage was one where the great vineyards showed their class and the 2014 Vat 1 is a textbook example of this. After a dry winter and spring, good rains in early December gave the vines a real boost. After being hand-picked in the early hours of the morning, the grapes were sorted in the vineyard to ensure that all of the fruit that arrived at the winery was in pristine condition.
The fruit was then very lightly crushed and pressed before undergoing a relatively cool fermentation. The wine spent only a short time on its lees before being bottled early to maintain its freshness; no oak was used in either fermentation or maturation.
This is a wine that combines elegance with power. It has lifted citrus aromas and a seamless palate structure that shows the powerful fruit core that we’ve come to expect in the Vat 1.
Technical Analysis
Alcohol Percentage
11.0%
TA
3.00 g/l
pH
6.99
Cellar Techniques
A dry winter and spring was broken by good rains in early December which helped the vines immensely. Moderate summer temperatures and some rain during the harvest period meant hand sorting of thefruit in the vineyard, to ensure all fruit that arrived at the winery was in pristine condition. Hand picked in the early hours of the morning, the fruit is very lightly crushed and pressed before arelatively cool fermentation. Then the wine spent minimal time on yeast lees before being bottled early to maintain its freshness. No oak fermentation or maturation
Winemaker(s)
Name - Andrew Spinaze, Mark Richardson and Chris Tyrrell
Winery
Having been spared the phylloxera epidemic that wiped out the great vineyards of Europe in the 19th century, the Hunter Valley is home to some of the oldest vineyards in the world. Within the boundaries of the region, it boasts some of the most unique pockets of vineyard land in Australia. Bruce Tyrrell has identified a selection of these “sacred sites” for their ability to produce fruit that is “so good and so different” they warrant individual bottling.
These “sacred sites” consist of six blocks (one chardonnay, two semillon, and three shiraz) that are over 100 years old, and still producing and growing on their own roots. These represent some of the rarest vines in the world and they most probably have their origins in the Busby Collection – a selection of some 433 grapevine cuttings from Europe that were originally planted in the Hunter Valley in the 1800s.
+1 888 812 2543