Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 10–25 years from vintage release
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted rosemary lamb, beef Wellington, mature hard cheeses
✨ Technical Specifications
The Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz is one of Australia's most legendary and collectible red wines, representing the pinnacle of Hunter Valley winemaking. The vineyard owes its evocative name to its original late 19th-century designation as a cemetery for the Pokolbin community, though it was never actually used for burials. Instead, the heavy, low-yielding clay soils were planted with Shiraz vines in 1968. This unique terroir produces a remarkably distinct style of Shiraz. Unlike the blockbuster, high-alcohol profiles of warmer Australian regions, the Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz is celebrated for its medium-bodied elegance, savory complexity, and structural precision. Traditional open fermenters are utilized, followed by maturation in high-quality French oak puncheons and barriques. The resulting wine is a masterclass in Hunter Valley terroir, showing bright red and dark berry fruits, cracked black pepper, earthy undertones, and silky, fine-grained tannins that evolve beautifully over decades.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1970 by Sydney lawyers Tony Albert, John Beeston, and acclaimed wine critic James Halliday, Brokenwood Wines began on a modest 10-acre block in Pokolbin within the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Guided for decades by veteran managing director and chief winemaker Iain Riggs, the estate evolved from a passionate weekend venture into one of Australia's most prestigious and benchmark wine producers. Brokenwood embraces a philosophy of precise, low-intervention winemaking designed to let terroir and varietal clarity shine across both estate-grown Hunter Valley fruit and carefully selected parcels across Australia. The winery has achieved global acclaim particularly for its crisp, cellar-worthy Hunter Valley Semillons and its flagship Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz, alongside popular lifestyle bottlings like the iconic Cricket Pitch label.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Shiraz
🍷 Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
13.0-13.5%