A dive into the Thomas Wines 2022 reds on a rainy Tuesday

It was 3 pm on Tuesday when I got the text from Andrew Thomas.

‘Hi mate, very late notice, but I’ve got the Chef’s Table at The Apollo for a member’s preview of our 2022 reds and have had a last-minute cancellation and was wondering if you want to come along as my guest’.

I don’t go to many evening wine events anymore, partly because there are fewer of them (RIP wine media), but mostly because feels like an extension of a wine work day. But this was different. Thommo and I were born on the same day (different years), and we’ve spent enough time at Sydney Swans games (#GoSwans) for me to know that an evening with Thommo is typically entertaining and full of honest takes on the Hunter Valley (and his wines).

These new 2022 Thomas Wines reds were worth my hustling straight from U6s soccer training to get there, too.

Before we talk wines, it’s probably worth revisiting this vertical of Thommo’s famed Braemore Semillon & Kiss Shiraz if you’d like some context about the who.

2022 was another tricky La Nina vintage in the Hunter Valley, which makes it especially interesting to see how a top maker like Thommo fared. As he detailed, this was a later harvest and high disease pressure (hello mildew), pushing growers to be hyper-vigilant on the sprayer to keep vineyards healthy. Thommo credits his green harvesting (up to 40% of the crop was dropped in the old Pololbin Estate Vineyard, which goes into the Kiss Shiraz) for helping ripen the fruit. Still, there’s no doubt that this wetter, later vintage produced lighter, more classically ‘Hunter Burgundy’ styles. They’re especially elegant if your context is the bigger, weightier, drought-year wines from 2017-2019.

Speaking of vintages, Thommo thinks the 2023 red wines are ones that he is most excited about, with the colour and perfectness of those wines ratcheting up the Hunter wine hyperbole from the moment the first bright purple grapes hit the crusher. The 2024 wines? Yeah, not so much, with the ultra-early and condensed harvest more mixed. Winery fermentation space was at a premium this year, and localised hail storms meant some vineyards had a rough time of it. But expect reds of colour and velocity, if not the restraint and mediumness of these 2022s.

Speaking of changing style, as I talked about in last year’s vertical, there’s been a shift in the Thomas Wines winemaking style over the past decade, too. New oak, even in the Elenay Shiraz (which sees more new barrels than the other reds in the portfolio), is down to circa 35% as a portion of the blend. Alcohol levels, especially in these 2022 reds, rarely top 13.5%, even though you’d not call any wines underripe.

Indeed, what I like about Thommo’s modern wines is that they’re deliciously generous purple things even at two years post-vintage. They can feel a bit elemental, especially when placed alongside the 2017 Kiss, but not in an overt way.

There were no scores with this either, as this was a member’s dinner, not some quiet, info-heavy trade session. The chat can be a massive distraction at these sorts of events (way too much time was devoted to discussing driving windows, which Thommo patiently kept pointing out is wildly subjective).

Oh, tune out now if you don’t like Hunter Shiraz (who are you?)…

Sadly I was too late to have another look at the Thomas Wines Braemore Semillon 2023 (don’t try and park in Potts Point. That was dumb), which is especially frustrating as I think Thommo’s Semillon wines can be even better than his Shiraz.

There are a few changes to the lineup for this release, starting with the new Thomas Wines DJV Shiraz Pinot Noir 2023. Previously, this wine blended fruit from a vineyard not far from the winery on Hermitage Road, blended with early-picked Semillon (also bottled as crunchy verjus). Now, it’s Shiraz (56%) from the Fordwich Hill and Vanessa Vale vineyards, plus Pinot Noir (44%) from the original Terrace Vale (now Hunters Dream) plantings on the alluvial flats of Deaseys Road. Thommo says this is ‘Shiraz for Pinot drinkers’, and it’s a light to medium weight and easily generous silken thing of 13.2% brightness. More drink-now smasher than a powerhouse expression of the famed Maurice O’Shea Shiraz Pinot wines, it even if it has the tannin lines to last longer than that. I’d still open it now because it is a round and effortless drink without the punch of the straight Shiraz wines.

The Thomas Wines The Cote Shiraz 2022 might be the sleeper wine of this lineup. Sourced from the old Cote d’Or Vineyard, which lies on the side of the hill behind Audrey Wilkinson on the SW edge of Pokolbin, Thommo sees this as an inconsistent site with occasional greatness. It was pretty great in ’22. There’s this truffley dark spice richness here that feels special, Rhonish, and interesting. It’s a more powerful set wine in this lineup too, only eclipsed, to my thinking, by the ’22 Kiss Shiraz.

By comparison, the Thomas Wines Dam Block Shiraz 2022 didn’t move me much. This comes from a block just the other side of the dam from the Pokolbin Estate Vineyard. This wine has a bit of blue and black fruit lumpiness, which looked less balanced, and the acid stuck out more. Not an unattractive wine, but less congruency than the Shiraz around it.

There are more changes afoot with the Thomas Wines Sweetwater Ridge Shiraz 2022. Thommo lost access to the fruit from the original Sweetwater Vineyard after the 2021 vintage, but he’s been sourcing grapes from the vineyard next door (literally, they share a fence, with vines planted at the same time) and putting them into the ‘Belford’ Shiraz. Same, same, but different. There’s a sexy, high-toned plum beautify to this Shiraz, and it’s a delight. It’s still unfurling, maybe to the point where it’s a backward wine (with a bit more fancy oak aromatics, too). Yes!

Unashamedly, the Thomas Wines Elenay Shiraz 2022 is now taken more seriously than ever before. Famously created as a winemaking accident, this barrel blend is pretty much a combination of barrels that would have gone into Sweetwater and Kiss Shiraz, but typically, the barrels show more oak toasty richness. Thommo sees this as a wine to win wine show medals, too, which is probably about right, given the extra layers of sweet fruit and sweet oak. It’s still a 13.5% red, and isn’t going to be confused with a McLaren Vale Shiraz at any point, but this has volume and plushness, especially for the Hunter. It’s going to be popular.

Finally, the Thomas Wines Kiss Shiraz 2022 has the swagger to be the winner. The ultra-low yields (1.5t/acre) of this site, in particular, I’ve always seen translated into an extra mid-palate punch that elevates the Kiss experience. It’s fancy wine. It’s powerful, even though this isn’t a powerful vintage (we had a Thomas Wines Kiss Shiraz 2017 as a mystery wine, and that felt throaty and hearty while this has a silken power vibe). Texture, that’s the edge here, with a grainy rocky sort of chunk to it, even if it’s still just 13.5% alcohol. Is it a classic Kiss? Hmmm. It’s probably less broad-shouldered than wines like that 2017, but when Kiss hits the fifteen-year mark it’s probably going to look great.

Oh, and the sweet Semillon? Made from Semillon juice concentrated in a RO (reverse osmosis) machine. It makes for an easy, simply sweet (but not heavy like a botrytis style) wine that Thommo unashamedly makes for the cellar door (where it’s wickedly popular).