Late Picked Semillon
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2030
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Lemon tart, blue cheese, fresh fruit pavlova
✨ Technical Specifications
While the Hunter Valley is globally renowned for its bone-dry, age-worthy Semillons, Brokenwood's Late Picked Semillon offers a delightfully sweet and luscious counterpoint. Crafted by leaving the grapes on the vine longer to concentrate their natural sugars, this style captures the opulent side of the variety. The grapes are harvested later in the season, allowing the development of rich stone fruit, citrus peel, and honeyed characters, while retaining the vibrant, crisp acidity that is the hallmark of Hunter Valley Semillon. This balance of sweetness and refreshing acidity prevents the wine from feeling cloying, making it an incredibly approachable and versatile dessert wine that showcases the playful versatility of Brokenwood's winemaking heritage.
🍾 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
Semillon