Hunter Semillion
The HVD Vineyard
Tyrrell’s HVD Vineyard is situated within the Hunter Valley 150km north of Sydney.
Originally planted in 1908, the vineyard has light, sandy, well drained soils and is situated between two creeks that run out of Moore’s Gully. We use traditional viticultural techniques of cane pruning and clean cultivation with a mound thrown up under the vines. This reduces the temperature at the base of the vines. The clean cultivation reduces moisture competition from grass and weeds plus closes any cracks in the ground to prevent moisture evaporation during the hot months of December and January.
First Planted in 1908, and part replanted in the mid 80's, the original semillon block known as the Sign Post, and the original chardonnay block (also planted in 1908) are still producing wines of great character.
The 2011 Vintage
This year’s vintage returned to a more normal time with a late start to spring followed by a cool, wet, October, November and December. This softer weather persisted until the end of January. We went into vintage with what looked like our best crop since 2002. In the last days of January it got seriously hot for two weeks and so we began picking whites flat out. Many of the hot days were without the usual cloud cover and so there was some dehydration in the semillon fruit.
This year’s semillons are a bigger, fuller style with plenty of fruit and softer acids. They are going to be good drinking early with medium or better cellaring potential. The problem with the 2011 semillons will be keeping your hands off them before they get some bottle age!
Futures White Option
Fresh and zesty in its youth, Hunter semillon begins to develop sophisticated and complex characters after 4-6 years maturation. It’s the bottle age with its natural acid that gives Hunter Semillon its delicious honey and fresh buttered toast character. The 2011 HVD Hunter Semillon will be superb drinking in 2015, but will live until at least 2021.
Winemaking Notes:
The fruit for the 2011 Futures Semillon was handpicked on the 7 and 8 February 2011.
After crushing and pressing, the juice was clarified quickly before going through a relatively cool fermentation. After fermentation, the wine spent two months on secondary lees before being filtered and prepared for bottling in July 2011.
Style:
The wine shows wonderful floral and citrus fruit notes on the nose. A tightly structured wine with excellent balance of fruit and acid. It displays the hallmark HVD softness and forgiveness. It’s the softer-bodied style that gives HVD its unique character compared to the stronger acid profile and robust fruit of Vat 1 Semillon.