A tour at Tyrrell’s Wines

I was always interested about Hunter Valley Semillon during my studies. On my first course at the AIS I didn’t had the chance to taste it and neither on the WSET Level 2. But at that time I have already read about it and really wanted to try!

 A single varietial wine without Sauvignon blanc and oak treatment which is really citrusy and fresh with a lot of complexity, but I was interested about the evolution of this wine. I read that you have to wait 5 to 10 years after bottling to open up and show its true potential, hence this wines are capable of ageing, and with that, it gets a lovely honey characteristic and amazing flavours and more complexity.

And my special day came in London at my work when Mr. Chris Tyrrell visited us in the restaurant. I heard he has one of the best wines in Australia and arguably the best Hunter Valley Semillon so I was really excited about this private tasting.

The Tyrrell family tree goes way back to England and France which you can check on their website if you are interested, and the winery has celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2018.

After this tasting I think it is naturally that I was looking forward to visit the vineyards and winery during our travels in Australia.Our visit was in the middle of the harvest time so I couldn’t meet again with Chris because of his busy schedule but still we had a really interesting tour and wine tasting at the end.

We have seen the vineyards which is one of the oldest planted in the country and where phylloxera was never present that is why they have many old vines to make intense and complex wines and they are ungrafted still on their original rootstock. We could take a look on the equipment of the winery and the impressive barrel collection. They use oak on a range of wines, but not for Semillon, this wines are fermented in stainless steel tanks and sometimes they leave it on the lees for extra flavours, aromas and complexity.

At the end of the tour we got the chance to taste some of their wines. They actually have a huge range, started with Semillon, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and even they own a few hectares of Siraz in Victoria. We have even tried the Special Aged fortified Tawny and I have to say that I loved all of them!

Obviously I have a special place in my heart for their Hunter Semillon but it is worth to taste everything from Tyrrell’s because  it is not a coincidence that these wines are the best in Australia.

What do you think of their wines? Have you tasted them before?