Hunter Valley Harvest
The growing season for the 2025 vintage started with budburst back way back in August last year so it’s a long haul for vineyard managers to get the vineyards to the point where they are ready to harvest. There are certainly no long summer holidays for them (or short ones) and with a hot spell over the Christmas/New Year period, many growers were constantly working to keep the water up to the vines. With some cooler temperatures and a bit of mid-January rain the vines were looking stress free and ready to do the last push of ripening. Then the Hunter does what it loves to do ... it rained. This stalled most vineyards for a week or so but the clouds parted and it was game on for the white varieties.
A key feature of this season was some cooler overnight temperatures early in the season which is ideal for acid retention and slightly extends the growing season which is perfect for flavour development. Crops were also well up on previous years, especially Semillon. Reds are now all harvested with the lower yielding vineyards coming in at some pretty impressive ripeness levels. All up it was a vintage with a bit of everything thrown in – hot, cold, wet, dry - you name it. Keep an eye out for some sensational 2025 whites and seek out the reds from old-vine vineyards.
Mar 10, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Permalink
New Look Tasting Area!
Our wonderful guests will be seeing some exciting new changes ... we have moved all of our tasting experiences into our beautiful Wine Lounge overlooking the lawns and lake!
We are refurbishing our tasting bar area (keep an eye out for some exciting news coming soon!) and so we will be hosting all of our Wine Experiences in the Wine Lounge.
You can select from our fantastic range of wine experiences including:
- Icon Wine Journey
- Hunter Uneartherd Tasting
- Wine Tasting 101
- Cocoa Nib Chocolate & Wine Tasting
And if you just fancy a glass of wine on the terrace you can book the Wine House Oasis. We look forward to welcoming you into this beautiful space on your next visit!
Mar 22, 2022 at 3:45 PM
Permalink
Vintage 2021
Vintage 2021 stands in stark contrast to vintage 2020. In late 2019 and early 2020 2020 many parts of the Hunter Valley were on fire and we were in our fourth year of drought. Now we are surrounded by lush green paddocks, full dams and fat livestock!
The four-year drought in the Hunter began to break in March 2020 but it has taken huge amounts of follow up rain to finally get the groundwater levels back up. Many growers reported that that even by Christmas the soils were still dry not far below the soil surface, a measure of just how thirsty and parched the land was.
By early January there was some anxiety that the rain would not stop. Incessant rain brings unwanted mildew and botrytis, but in the second week of January the skies cleared and near perfect conditions for the beginning of the white grape harvest followed.
Now that vintage is all but wrapped around the Valley we can report (with a huge sigh of relief) that our winemakers are a happy bunch. The whites were pretty much all tucked away in the winery by the end of January with some rave reviews of the quality of Chardonnay by Liz Silkman, David Hook and Gwyn Olsen (Peppertree). There was also some excitement over new varieties by Ian & Suzanne Little bringing in their first Pecorino and Albarino grapes and Keith Tulloch is over the moon with his single vineyard Semillon.
There was strange lull between the whites and the reds with a lot of nervous checking of the weather radar. Most winemakers start the reds not long after all the whites are picked but this year they just weren’t ready. Winemakers do a lot of walking in the vineyards tasting the grapes, assessing flavour and ripeness as well as the condition of the fruit. Samples are taken back to the winery for analysis of sugar, acid and colour. A lot of factors determine the decision to pick and by mid-February it all started to come together for the reds. Beautiful flavours in the reds, more reminiscent of the elegance of say 2011 and 2013 than the recent block bluster drought years of 2017 to 2019. The general consensus is the Hunter Valley has pulled a rabbit out of the hat and it’s wearing a very smart bow-tie!
Mar 12, 2021 at 1:00 PM
Permalink
What is the Enomatic Tasting System?
Essentially it is a self-serve wine dispensing machine which sounds a little unromantic until you have experienced it – then you will definitely want one in your house too!
We were the first cellar door in the Hunter Valley to introduce the Enomatic system when we installed three 8-bottle machines in 2009. Featuring revolutionary technology in gas preservation, these beautiful Italian machines allow wines to be preserved for up to three weeks. The system operates using argon gas, which seals the bottle to stop any oxidation, so that the flavour and characteristics of wine remain intact.
The Enomatic system allows you to taste at your own leisure and taste whichever wines suit your palate. We have two Enomatic wine machines in our Icon Lounge, featuring 16 premium wines and representing over a dozen different winemakers. We rotate the wines in the line up regularly and our aim is to cover divergent styles from the best Hunter Valley winemakers to show you the very best of our region.
The option of three different pour sizes allows for great flexibility:
- 30 mL Taste: For those who would like to try a number of the wines in the range.
- 75 mL Half Glass: A little bit more of the wine to enjoy
- 150 mL Glass: For when you find the wine you really love and want to sit back and savour.
So book your Icon Wine Experience today on the Make a Booking page and take a journey through our amazing range of winemakers!
Nov 20, 2020 at 2:12 PM
Permalink