This mature yet flamboyant red blew me away

published 3 October 2008

2006 Brokenwood Verona Vineyard Shiraz, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia (£97.15 for a case of six bottles, £17.99 each, Marks & Spencer Wines Direct).

I was delighted to be asked to be the international judge at the recent Hunter Valley Wine Show it was a fascinating week of tasting, with some very serious dinners, too!

One of the estates which performed at a very high level (gaining five gold medals and a trophy) was Brokenwood. This is one of their wines and it is extraordinary value for money when you buy it from M&S by the six-pack. Made from 40-year-old vines, from a single vineyard site opposite the famous Graveyard Vineyard, the dark red clay soils in Verona vineyard are the clue to its hypnotic flavours. With a dark chocolate texture and amazing silkiness, accompanied by forest fruit notes and sweet plums, this is initially a very exotic wine.

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But the flamboyant performance is tempered with an innate earthiness and maturity of vine which brings breeding and composure to its cavalcade of flavours. Using half American and half French oak barrels, the balance of lushness and class is maintained and, dare I say it, augmented. I was blown away when I first tasted it.

This is the very first bottling of Verona as a single vineyard wine you are the very first to read about it, too.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.