Quince Tree Semillon

This is the classical Hunter Valley dry white, traditionally made without the use of oak to retain all the freshness of the vibrant fruit. Semillon leans towards citrus characters while a young wine, but if allowed to age in the bottle the wine loses that initial sharpness and develops softer and more complex flavours. 

Semillon is the backbone of the Hunter's white wine industry and it has been grown here for well over 150 years. The grape itself comes from Bordeaux in Western France where it is traditionally combined with Sauvignon Blanc to produce the distinctive wines of Bordeaux. However, even the French accept that Semillon hits its highest heights in the Hunter Valley.

It is a thin skinned variety that needs careful management of the vineyard and some fairly poor looking soil rather than the deep sandy loams that other varieties prefer. Years of experience in the Hunter has proved which pruning and trellising systems work best. The flavour changes quite rapidly on the vine, so this is always hand picked early and the freshness fades out quickly if left to go too ripe.

The first successful vintage was 2002 and the bottle we opened on Christmas Day 2010 was superb - still a pale green / gold colour but soft and full of levels of complex flavour. This won our first ever Gold Medal - Cairns Wine Show 2002 and went on to win further medals for several years.

Our 2004 Semillon went into a huge Hunter Valley Semillon taste off with all Semillon from all makers from all years and it came eleventh ... out of over 300!

We still have for same some of the 2007 vintage - a really decent season and a superb wine but now is very short supply. Some went into making our famous Sticky Fingers dessert style.

2008 was the worst year ever for Mount Broke Wines, and indeed for most of the Hunter Valley and the only grapes we picked that year were the early harvested 2008 Semillon. This developing a bit more quickly that Semillon usually does, so is spot on now but won't last as long as some of the other vintages have done.

The 2009 is brighter and fresher and a return to the style we wanted to make all along - so far 3 shows and 3 bronze medals but there is plenty of future for this wine.

2010 is already in the bottle but is still a long way off opening up into a classic. We knew there was a huge storm coming and picked it all in one hit slightly under-ripe, but the alternative was to lose the entire crop and it was too good for that!

Food Match: fresh shellfish - a plate of prawns & scallops, a slice of lemon and a warm summers afternoon