tasting notes

sporkling wines
2024 prosciutto (na)
semi-sweet wines
guinea pig Guinea pig was a little experiment of mine. A friend drinks a lot of sweet apple cider and so I was wondering if a wine could be made that mimicked this. Hunter Valley Semillon and sauvignon blanc were selected for the style and picked early when green apple notes were still evident. The resulting wine was carbonated, not bottle fermented, as this technique is much faster and allows a youthful, fresh wine to be produced. The end result is like an apple cider/lemonade hybrid. Sweet, fizzy but tart and refreshing at the same time. It’s quite low in alcohol, so a group can easily move through a bottle. Drink it in it’s youth with good friends at good times.
porco rosso (lambrusco-style sweet red) porco rosso is a new addition to the piggs peake range. it's a snazzy sweet wine made out of shiraz and muscat grapes, designed to be served chilled. the muscat gives the wine a lifted rose petal character which is quite alluring. an ideal wine to crack with a plate of cured meats and cheeses.
pigscato Pigscato has been created by blending two different types of muscat grapes together. One is grown in McLaren Vale SA and it’s a variety called frontignac. Frontignac is a highly aromatic muscat and lends a lot of aromatics to the nose. Things like rose petals and lychee. The other muscat was grown here in the hunter and is a black grape that we skin contact to extract a bit of colour into the wine, giving it delicacy and a pink tinge. This is a very elegant style of sweet wine. It’s not over the top with sugar and there’s a refreshing line of acidity.
pig juice pig juice is just pure joy. it's a sweet, fizzy expression of all sorts of red fruit flavours such as cherry, berry and raspberry. it's a lower alcohol wine so it is perfect for enjoying a few glasses with friends. drink in its youth.
white wines
2023 sows ear semillon Semillon is something of a staple here in the Hunter Valley and this is a classic example of it. Lemony and limey, but with a fullness and body that people sometimes forget Semillon should have. This lively style is a brilliant accompaniment to freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters in its youth, and at 10 years of age will be golden and broader with hints of honey and toast on the nose and more suited to cooked white meats. Try it either way (if you have the patience) but don’t drink it in the middle.
2023 pig latin fiano Fiano is a newcomer to the hunter valley. Ancestrally, it’s from Naples in southern Italy. A climate not greatly dissimilar to that of the hunter valley. This climate matching led to fiano being planted here and so far it’s been a very successful exercise. The wines are medium bodied with a nice line of acidity. Notes of tinned pears are on the nose. These are quite universal wines. Easy to drink and great food matches. Try one with your next king prawn pizza.
2022 surly pig chardonnay The summer of 2022 was quite chilly. It wasn’t exactly one for the beach. These cooler summers lend themselves to styles of Chardonnay that Australians don’t immediately think of. This is a leaner, tighter style of chardy made in a combination of old French oak and stainless steel. Its not a yellow oak bomb, but a pale, linear wine well suited to fresh seafood. These styles also reward extended cellaring, so feel free to pop some away to drink in the 2030’s.
2024 parcel of whites Marianne, rousanne, viognier we have been championing the cause of rhone white varietals for over 20 years here at piggs. the marsanne vineyard we use was planted in 1973, so this is hardly a new thing, but the uptake of the white grapes that grow beside shiraz in france has been strangely slow here. it's happening now and we are seeing plantings of roussanne popping up and more marsanne going in. this sensational wine is a 3 way blend of roussanne, marsanne and viognier. roussanne and marsanne carry the blend in terms of providing flavour and structure, while viognier gives body and aromatics.
2024 upper pig verdelho here at piggs we have moved our verdelho fruit sourcing to the upper hunter. the more inland climate seems to suit the verdelho and has resulted in a big, tropical white wine full of fruit salad characters. try this wine with fuller flavoured white meat dishes such as roast pork.
2023 piggio Pinot gris or pinot grigio, depending on your favourite way of saying it, is an interesting grape. We use a vineyard on the western side of Orange where to grapes ripen to a lovely red/blue/grey colour during the growing season. During crushing and pressing, some of the colour is transferred to the juice and as a result our piggio often has a copper tinge to it. This is a full bodied white wine with a broad, rich palate. Its a great drink on its own or is well suited to rich white meat dishes.
2023 pork barrel viognier Viognier is one of the rarer white grapes in Australia. It’s been here for a while, but is tricky to grow, so a lot of viticulturists won't touch it. This viognier was grown down in McLaren Vale SA where it achieved full ripeness looking out over the ocean. The wine was aged in French oak, giving it a bit of a chardonnay looking edge. But, the trademark perfume and dried apricots that attract people to the variety are still there. This is a great wine to have with roast white meats.
2023 porcelet saumon (dry rose) The little pink pig from 2023 has gone full circle and ended up back with the original vineyard of Grenache that we used in 2020 to make the first of this series. When you pour this wine you will have to just trust us when we tell you it’s a rosé. It appears to be a white wine on first glance, but if you get a white background you can see some colouration courtesy of the Grenache skins. The juice was immediately drained off after picking, so little skin contact was utilised. The nose is savoury and the palate textured. A lovely food friendly rosé style.
2023 rosed pork the rosed pork is one of piggs peake's most popular wines. It’s a cabernet rosé grown down in young, nsw (or the wine region of hilltops as its also known). The long, cold growing season results in a fragrant and perfumed cabernet grape which we crush and let sit on skins for 24 hours. The juice that’s pressed off the next day is a bit darker than the average rosé and the flavours are redder, reminding us of strawberry cream lollies and bubblegum. This wine was made to drink, but if we had a plate of cold meats and cheese with it, we wouldn’t be upset.
dessert wines
iswine This is a tricky little way to produce a dessert wine. Basically, the water is squeezed out of grape juice (in this case hunter valley Semillon) using a high pressure pump and a membrane. As the juice is pushed against the membrane, water goes through making the remaining juice sweeter and sweeter. Finally, it gets sweet and thick enough to lend itself to a dessert wine style. Try this wine with some nice soft runny stinky cheese.
suckling pig shiraz The suckling pig shiraz is a bit of an institution here at piggs peake. The wine was created as a food wine match to chocolatey desserts. In the cellar door when you try it we give you a bit of Callebaut chocolate and the result is a cherry ripe experience. Interestingly, this wine cellars well and develops orange peel characters with age. As an aged wine try it with a Jaffa cake.
red wines
2022 house of straw merlot In our range there’s house of straw, house of sticks and house of bricks. So, light, medium and heavy. This merlot is a light, fragrant red grown out in the western ranges of NSW. Merlot has a reputation for having a full mid palate which is soft and approachable and this wine delivers on that. Try this wine in its youth with a trimmed lamb cutlet.
2022 happy as mudgee shiraz The fruit for this wine was grown in the mudgee region, a few hundred kilometres north west of the hunter valley. Mudgee is further inland and as a result has a more continental climate, i.e. theres a bigger difference between day and night temperatures. The hunter is relatively close to the coast, so we see more even temperatures. In 2022 the mudgee vintage went pretty much to script. The fruit was vibrant and deeply coloured. We made it into wine and then looked at how to incorporate it into our house of straw, sticks and bricks range. Basically, it defied being blended. We always investigate blending wines and more often than not find a way to improve a wine by doing so. But, sometimes a wine just has a uniqueness that is only diminished by blending it. And so it was for the happy as shiraz. The decision was made to simply bottle it as is, so you can see how good the 2022 mudgee vintage was. Mudgee shiraz isn’t hugely different to hunter shiraz. It's medium bodied and matches well with tender cuts of beef cooked medium rare.
2023 full bore durif " i personally love durif. it's a big, bold, rough, tough wine. a friend of mine used to describe it as wine for heroes. he wasn't wrong. in the winemaking we do everything we can to tame durif down and it is still a beast. it just has that bit of mongrel in it. this one was grown in mclaren vale, south australia. we fully ripened it on the vine prior to picking, resulting in 17% alcohol in the bottle. wine for heroes indeed!!! " ~ steve langham, winemaker
2022 house of sticks shiraz The house of sticks range are piggs peake's medium bodied reds. Well, medium bodied for us… To create these wines we like to blend McLaren vale shiraz (which can be very bold, blocky and chunky) with shiraz grown in high country, such as the western ranges of NSW (elegant and fragrant), with the end result being a shiraz with deep colour, medium body and lovely aromatics. A small viognier addition adds lift to the nose, aroma and amazingly smooths out some of the rougher edges on the tannin structure. These more elegant wines are suited to extended cellaring and we find there's a nice sweet spot at 6-8 years of age for people who are into aged wines. Having said that, they tend to drink well at any point along the journey. Give it a go with a well seared steak.
2022 house of bricks shiraz The house of bricks range are piggs peake's big reds. These are wines designed to hold nothing back. Expect lots of big coconut and coffee oak flavours and aromas, as well as blackberry jam on the palate. While these wines are great fun to drink young, someone into cellaring might want to try them at about 6 years of age. Try this with a well seared and properly rested rump steak.
2023 piggy back hunter valley shiraz this is hands down the best hunter shiraz ever made at piggs peake! 2023 was a blinder of a vintage and for the first time we managed to get fruit off this old vineyard which is situated on a dome of red, crumbly soil on deasys road. it has everything you would ever want to see in a hunter shiraz. ripe berry flavours, a gentle but generous palate. this is a classy wine. wines like this do suit extended cellaring, so if you are into that, lay this wine down for 8-12 years and then try it with things like a rare cut of premium beef.
2023 biroldo sangiovese sangiovese translates into the blood of god, so it only seemed fitting that we named ours after one of italy's most famous blood sausages. our 2023 sangiovese was grown in mclaren vale, south australia and has produced a very classic looking wine. it's pale in colour, which doesn't prepare you for the acid and tannin that this variety is famous for. sangiovese is the classic food wine. hard to sit and drink, but a wine that shines with the right food. take some time out and slow cook a duck ragout, spoon it onto a bowl of pappardelle pasta, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, pour a glass of biroldo and just relax and enjoy life.
2023 spamish tempranillo blend its not secret that winemaker, steve langham, has a soft spot for spanish grapes. tempranillo grenache can make such beautiful wines. in this case we have blended mudgee tempranillo with grenache from mclaren vale for the aromatics and then thrown in a whisker of shiraz for structure. the end result is a medium weighted red that has it all. lifted nose, gentle palate, generous weight. this is a completely drinkable wine that can be drunk anytime over the next 5 years and is a perfect accompaniment to an evening of share plates.
2023 pork and old shiraz here at piggs, we like old vines. they have a habit of making high quality wines consistently due to their experience and energy stores within their trunk and roots. this vineyard was planted in 1880 in mclaren vale and is the oldest vineyard that we take fruit from. the wine is not a monster red, it's one of the most elegant wines in our range, but it has this ethereal quality. it seems to just grace the palate. it is a wonderful wine to drink.
2023 brimming shiraz " every now and then at piggs, marc and i try a wine, look at each other and go wow! when this happens we take the parcel out of our normal hierarchy of straw, sticks and bricks and bottle it, so we can show someone something special. this is one of those wines. it's just impresssive. it's got everything you would ever want to see in a big red. these are wines best drunk early in their life, ideally in the first 3 years with a quality piece of beef. " ~ steve langham, winemaker
2023 the cutter shiraz a cutter is a bigger pig that is used for larger joints of meat. as such, it seemed like an appropriate name for this massive south australian shiraz. the grapes for this wine were grown in mclaren vale. the brief was to fully ripen them on the vine prior to harvest, with the goal being to make a monster red. new american oak was employed to give coffee notes to the nose of blackberry jam. although huge, this wine is also approachable young. try it with full flavoured dishes such as osso bucco in its youth or cellar for about 3 years to see how it evolves.
fortified wines
piggsy tawny 750ml