A tasting of the wines of Australian producer Brokenwood at Frank Siegel’s Sanlintun Sequoia Café in conjunction with Jebsen wines. Geoff Krieger, one of the company’s twenty-five partners and General Manager, was on hand to answer questions and also gave a short introduction to the winery. Brokenwood, although based in the Hunter Valley since 1970, has become increasingly national in its grape-sourcing, although the majority of wines are vinified in the Hunter itself.

2006 Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon

Appearance: light green.

Nose: complex nose of lime and green apple, slight wax. Very young and green at present.

Palate: more lime and green apple fruit, wax, medium-high acidity, lean feel, obviously no oak in this classic Hunter Semillon style.

Conclusion: very good, a wine you can either drink now when it is fresh, green and light or ten years down the road when the wine will become nutty – even giving the illusory sense of being oaked – with complex savoury notes.

Rating: 18.5/20

2005 Brokenwood Cricket Pitch Sauvignon Semillon

Appearance: medium gold.

Nose: developed Semillon is dominant with lemon and nutty aromas – you might be forgiven for thinking this wine is oaked, but it is entirely unoaked. Any green notes from the Sauvignon have blended into the wine with slight age.

Palate: more nutty, lemon fruit with nice zip of acidity from the Sauvignon. Good length.

Conclusion: pleasant and a lovely example of an unoaked Sauvignon-Semillon blend (50% of each). The fruit is sourced from both New South Wales and South Australia but everything is vinified in the Hunter Valley itself.

Rating: 17.5/20

2003 Brokenwood Cricket Pitch Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Shiraz

Appearance: medium purple-red, slight orange rim.

Nose: attractive red and black fruit nose with slight spice and integrated oak.

Palate: medium-bodied, nice ripe chewy tannins, pleasant acidity and easy drinking, fruity red.

Conclusion: this is 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot and 25% Shiraz with fruit sourced from South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Easy drinking, but I think the Cricket Pitch white is more exciting.

Rating: 17/20

2004 Brokenwood Hunter Valley Shiraz

Appearance: medium purple-red, slight orange rim.

Nose: complex blackberry fruit with definite black pepper accompanied by sweet-smelling spices (cinnamon, cardamom). Good oak.

Palate: lovely fruit, good acidity, nicely integrated oak – which is actually American, hence the sweet nose here albeit mixed with savoury characteristics – medium chewy tannins, medium-bodied.

Conclusion: a lovely example of Hunter Shiraz, not too massive in style, elegant and very drinkable.

Rating: 18/20

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Welcome to the Dragon Phoenix Wine Blog, a wholly independent blog written by Edward Ragg and Fongyee Walker of Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting, an independent wine consultancy based in Beijing, China.

Here you will find myriad Featured Tastings and Interviews with winemakers, winery owners and others involved in the industry, many of whom have visited Beijing recently.

You can also read or find links to hundreds of tasting notes of all the wines we have rated since beginning detailed notes back in 2003 (many of which are now available in the wider Chinese market).

We are in the process of transferring most of these notes to tasting site Adegga which we heartily recommend as a social wine network resource and a great place to record your personal cellar, post tasting notes yourself or meet other wine lovers.

For an explanation of how we rate the wines and how our tasting notes are organized, please see Tasting Notes Explained.

Also, check out Edward’s articles on Catavino, Enobytes and Visit Vineyards.

Happy reading and tasting!

Edward Ragg
& Fongyee Walker

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2002 ‘Etim’ Syrah, Monsant DO, Agricola Falset-Marçà

Appearance: dark purple to black, clear rim.

Nose: very ripe black cherry and blueberry nose with lots of oak. No indication of the black pepper that Syrah tends to show in cooler climates. But this DO would hardly qualify as a cooler climate. Might be mistaken for a New World wine on the nose but there is also a tart smell here behind all the ripe fruit.

Palate: ripe fruit, lots of oak, medium chewy tannins, surprising amount of acidity and quite good length. Doesn’t quite hold together but is certainly very drinkable. Improved with aeration and is obviously one worth decanting.

Conclusion: this wine comes from the bottom of the main hill of the Priorat area. As John Radford reports in The New Spain: ‘There had been talk for a long time of splitting the former Tarragona-Falset sub-zone away from the large DO Tarragona, and in 2001 it finally happened’. Radford goes on to explain: ‘Falset (the main town) is […] in a kind of mountain valley, with the Serra to Montalt rising […] in the southeast and the foothills of the Serra de Montsant in the northwest rising […] toward Priorato’. Garnacha – or Grenache – is very much the feature of Priorat, but this wine was interesting to taste because it’s not often that you come across a straight Spanish Syrah – or any Spanish Syrah. I liked it and would think the wine-making has got better since 2002.

Rating: 16.5/20

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