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 solicitors James Halliday, John Beeston, and Tony Albert, Brokenwood Wines began on a ten-acre Pokolbin parcel initially intended as a cricket ground. Situated in the lower Hunter Valley against the Brokenback Mountain Range, the estate operates on alluvial loams and heavy clay soils, shaped by a warm, humid subtropical climate with cooling maritime breezes. While historically anchored by its renowned Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz, Brokenwood established equivalent global renown for its pure, cellar-worthy white wines. The estate practices certified viticulture under Sustainable Winegrowing Australia standards, supervised in cellar operations by Chief Winemaker Stuart Hordern following Iain Riggs's transformative tenure. Renowned benchmark expressions include the single-vineyard and aged ILR Reserve Semillon—celebrated for low-alcohol tension, racy citrus acidity, and nuanced toast developments without oak maturation—alongside single-site iterations like Stanleigh Park Vineyard Semillon and cool-climate chardonnays from Beechworth and Orange.
🍇 Grapes
Shiraz
🍷 ABV
13.0-13.5%