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Keith Tulloch Wine believes “The art of winemaking is a focus on excellence with a passion and commitment to create wines with personality, without compromise…”
The Tulloch family have been an integral part of the Hunter Valley since 1896, there are only a few families in Australia which can claim to have a history spanning over a century. Keith Tulloch, a fourth generation winemaker, worked for Lindemans and Rothbury before establishing his own boutique winery back in 1997. Having heard good things from other wine makers in the region we decided it was time to go and have sneaky peak! The Keith Tulloch cellar door is located on Hermitage Road and offers tasting from the first floor veranda overlooking the picturesque vineyards of the Hunter and the Brokenback mountain range. This setting alone makes this cellar door a must visit if you are in the Hunter.
The wines at Keith Tulloch are all refined and elegant bringing out the best the Hunter Valley has to offer. The semillon is young, with a juicy freshness and a lovely crisp balance that indicates patient cellaring will reap plenty of rewards. A taste of the merlot reveals a rich and fruity flavour with a lovely mouthfilling fine tannin that again will age nicely. Sipping the shiraz viogner allows you to discover a highly perfumed, silky drink young wine tasting of fully ripe dark berries leading into a plum, almost cherry finish. I haven’t even come to the highlight of the tasting yet!
The standout wine, without a shadow of a doubt, is the Kester Shiraz… Sourced from old dry-farmed Hunter Valley vineyards, the grapes used in this wine are fermented with a trace of Viognier in open vats for four weeks, are plunged by hand and then allowed to mature in fine french oak barrels for twenty months. The almost intoxicating nose is made up of dark berry, dark chocolate and liqorice with a subtle hint of earthiness. The palate consists of ripe berry fruit, a hint of oak and spice with a velvety richness of tannin that leaves you sure you are drinking a premium Hunter Valley shiraz. If you can resist the urge to drink this wine then cellaring for ten to maybe even twenty years holds so much potential.
Majella have an excellent reputation and in an effort to expand the number of Cabernet based wines in our cellar, I picked up a bottle of Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 to try - it was a good move.
I held out much hope for the Mount Pleasant Rosehill Shiraz 2004 after the overripe and tarry number from the previous year. Sadly I cannot help but feel that once again, you would be better off with a $12 Philip Shiraz instead.
This particular bottle was a replacement for its older and sadly corked brother from the 2002 vintage. Unfortunately the good customer service cannot make up for the contents of the Rosemount Show Reserve Shiraz 2004.
Just after Christmas Gemma and I inexplicably found ourselves at the Boutique Wine Center inquiring after any new releases. Although there was nothing released in the previous two months, we were lucky enough to taste some unreleased 2007 reds from Meerea Park (all of which look superb), including the Meerea Park Shiraz Viognier 2007 which is available as of today.