THE PRODUCER
The Tyrrell family has owned the Hunter Valley property since 1858 when they
planted Syrah and Semillon from the James Busby collection and produced the
first vintage in 1864. Wine was not the focus until the 1960s when Murray
Tyrrell set up a cellar door and a mail order business, based around special
selection wines under numbered Vat labels. Among these, from 1963, was the Vat 1
Semillon that has become one of the most awarded white wines in Australia.
Tyrrells also pioneered Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with some of the earliest
commercial releases of each in the country in the 1970s.

Tyrrells started a program of investigation of the suitability of his vineyards
to particular varieties and purchased ancient vineyards when they became
available. This led to the Sacred Sites range all from vines over 100 years old.
Next generation Bruce Tyrrell hid 1,000 cases of 1989 Vat 1 from his father,
releasing it in 1996 to show the benefits of age on Hunter Semillon. The
practice continues to this day. Tyrrells owns a large proportion of the oldest
vineyards in the Hunter – the other main landowner of old vineyards is Mount
Pleasant – and produces outstanding wines from these, sadly in very limited
quantities.

THE WINE
Vat 9 is a blend of the best old blocks on the Tyrrell Estate ‘Ashmans’, where
the oldest vines date back to 1892. Most of the blend is from vineyards, the
Weinkeller and Short Flat. The wine is allowed to mature in mostly large new
French oak barrels. An incredibly graceful and fragrant, yet powerful wine.

INFORMATION
Type:RedVintage:2009
Country:AustraliaRegion:New South Wales
Sub region:Hunter ValleyGrape:100% ShirazStyle:Rich and IntenseSweetness:DryABV:
13%Drinking window:2013 - 2050Size:750mlFood match:Beef and Venison


CRITICS SCORES
We choose our wines based on a range of criteria(seehow we choose our wines)of
which critic scores is justone. Rather than simply highlight the best score to
promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided
by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do
not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more
weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores
like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a92/100average critic score or
better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a
high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we
offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the
market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and
representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide
to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add
individual critic scores to our website in the future.