The freshness of this wine demonstrates why Hunter semillon is possibly the most under-rated wine style in the world. The aromas centre around lemon, lime and fresh hay, and the palate is decidedly linear, based on a spine of acidity. This exceptional wine, at six years of age, is still at least five away from its optimum drinking window. 'Little or no colour change; the bouquet is distinctly aromatic, but still focused on primary fruit, not toast or honey; the palate is electrifying, drawing saliva from the mouth with its mix of unsweetened lemon juice/lemon zest and life-giving acidity, the DNA of great Semillon.10.9% alcohol.' (2009 Vintage) - 97 points. - James Halliday February 2016.

Graveyard Vineyard is the jewel in the Brokenwood crown, responsible for the company's flagship wines. The vineyard was planted with Shiraz vines in 1970 - extremely heavy clay soils, yields are low, but fruit flavour is intense through employment of meticulous vinification techniques. Strong lifted aromas of sweet earth and dark cherry greet the olfactory senses. Oak features, but will soften and integrate given some patience. Initial flavours of dark chocolate and ripe plums are beautifully lashed to ripe tannins lending an edge of cedar.

The intensely perfumed, sumptuous and seductive Brokenwood Graveyard articulates the very best of Hunter Shiraz. It is arguably the Hunter Valley's greatest red wine of the contemporary era. The east-facing Graveyard vineyard, first planted out in 1968, was once earmarked in 1882 as the Pokolbin cemetery but this did not eventuate.Young elemental Graveyard typically shows ginger bread, blackberry aniseed fruit, plenty of savoury oak and floral herb garden notes. The opulent gamey French polish characters develop with time bringing a rich palimpsest of aromas and flavours.