“I NEVER thought I’d see it – a return of Dalwood-label wines, made from grapes from the Branxton home of Australia’s oldest continuously operating vineyard.
To my great delight, however, today I’m reviewing wines that hold that distinction and signal a new era for the Hunter River-front site settled in 1828 by George Wyndham.
The wines are the first of the Dalwood label to appear since the 1970s and the first since developer and hotelier Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital group bought Dalwood last December.
The $3million purchase from Pernod Ricard expanded Iris’s Hunter wine empire, born in July 2016 with the Sweetwater Estate at Rothbury and followed in November 2016 by Hungerford Hill brand, winery, vineyard and cellar door. The Dalwood deal added the 105-hectare site, with its heritage-listed sandstone cellar, amphitheatre, function centre, cellar door, restaurant and public picnic areas.”