2023 Thomas Wines Braemore Semillon

Vivid and star bright in the glass, the 2023 shimmers with citrus fruits, minerals and white flowers, underscored by a note of preserved lemon. It’s a delightful nerve ball of a wine, crackling with energy and layered with complexity before finishing with intensity and great length. It’s going to be a stunner, but there is already so much to enjoy right now.

The Braemore Vineyard, planted in 1969, is widely considered one of the best vineyards in the Valley. It is in the Hunter Semillon dress circle on the sandy alluvial flats of Hermitage Road, Pokolbin. Thomas is one of about twelve producers, including Tyrrell’s, on this narrow, two-kilometre strip of ‘Grand Cru’ Semillon soil. Once an ancient sea floor, the deep, sandy loam soils are free-draining, allowing deep root penetration, which is perfect for the variety. It’s universally accepted that the site produces some of the finest examples of classic Hunter Valley Semillon. It is particularly famed for producing wines of remarkable longevity. Andrew states, “The thing that sets Braemore apart, what gives it its longevity, is that extra level of intensity and concentration that comes from Semillon grown on this kind of soil.”

The various blocks within the Braemore vineyard were hand-picked in mid-February. Each batch was meticulously hand-sorted to ensure only the very best fruit went through for whole-bunch pressing (to minimise phenolic extraction). After fermentation, the wine spent five weeks on lees before bottling.