2025 Braemore Semillon
2025 Braemore Semillon
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Hunter Valley Semillon is one of the world's most unique regional wine styles. The Braemore vineyard (planted 1969) is situated on the sandy alluvial flats of Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, and consistently produces Semillon featuring freshness, vibrancy, and remarkable longevity. This single-vineyard wine has achieved an enviable reputation over the years as being one of the finest examples of classic Hunter Valley Semillon.
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Winemaking Overview
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In the Vineyard
An ideal, relatively dry growing season from budburst through to verasion, had the vineyard looking textbook perfect and ready for the run home to harvest. A couple of pesky storms during January certainly tested our nerve, but ultimately the season was very kind indeed, leading to perfectly ripe fruit with perfectly balanced natural acidity.
A relatively generous crop was a welcome return after the miserable yields from the 2024 vintage.
We started picking the Braemore vineyard on Monday, the 27th of January, and just like last year, it was evident that the whole vineyard was ripening very quickly and evenly so we managed to hand-pick the whole vineyard in just five days. -
In the Winery
The hand-picked fruit was run across our state-of-the-art vibrating sorting table to ensure that only the absolute highest quality bunches get through to the press. The grapes are then whole-bunch pressed to minimise phenolics, and fermented with our specially selected neutral yeast to enhance the varietal purity. At the completion of the fermentation, the wine spent six weeks resting on its yeast lees prior to preparing for bottling.
The 2025 Braemore Semillon is back to a more classically shaped style, displaying impeccable purity and precision than the slightly riper style from last vintage. The internal concentration, intensity, and tightly wound energy are always hallmarks of this pedigree vineyard. The 2025 vintage edition is certainly a wine that will provide great current drinking pleasure as well as being an absolute belter for the cellar.
Is it possible this vintage could rival the great 2013 vintage Braemore?11.0% ABV
Tasting Notes
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Appearance & Aroma
Sourced from one of the Hunter Valley’s most celebrated Semillon vineyards, the colour offers a star-bright, pale lemon hue with an electric green hue
The nose is vibrant and inviting, revealing classic aromas of fresh lime pith, green apple, and yellow dragon-fruit, lifted by delicate notes of borage petals and river stones.
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Palate & Finish
The palate is immediately engaging, driven by crisp acidity wrapped around a core of starfruit, yellow kiwi, and Granny Smith apple. Subtle hints of chamomile, lime sorbet, and soft herbs add complexity. Packed with intensity and clarity, the 2025 Braemore is elegantly light-bodied yet delivering impressive length and purity.
The mouth-watering acidity provides impeccable balance and precision ensuring the wine can be enjoyed as a youngster, or cellared with confidence.
WHEN TO DRINK
A great each-way bet here. You can enjoy this wine now during the freshness and vibrancy of its youth, or cellar for 6 – 20+ years
The Vineyards
Whilst I have always applied a no compromise, attention to detail approach to my winemaking, I truly believe that 90% of the quality lies in the vineyard. The key to great wine is ‘keeping it simple’ to preserve that potential quality from the vine through to the bottle - Andrew Thomas