Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz 2024
- 96
- $500
- Drink by: 2026-2056
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This has long been the Hunter Valley’s most iconic red and this release continues with the standard of excellence that has been established over many vintages. The wine receives a three-day cold soak before a fermentation for the best part of a week, and then sees time for maturation in French oak, 15% which is new. It is from vines that are now fifty-six years of age. The immediate impression that this vintage provides is that it will be one of the longest lived of the series. Definitely a Graveyard for the long haul. A vibrant blood red with a pale crimson rim, this is concentrated and focused with the nose offering aromas of truffles, dried herbs, plum pudding, charcuterie, animal hides, black fruits, wild raspberries and coffee grinds. It is already exhibiting early signs of the complexity which will surely build over time. The wine is finely balanced, and it maintains its intensity for the full length. A creamy texture, the wine lifts on the palate. There is great length here, through to the silkiest of tannins. Still youthful, the more time one can give it in glass, and bottle, the better. It will easily provide pleasure for the next twenty-five to thirty years and leaving it in the cellar for the next five to eight years before opening will not be the worst idea anyone’s ever had. A superb Graveyard.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
