Silkman Wines

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The classic Hunter Semillon winemaking style is to harvest early, ferment dry and bottle early, without any any exposure to oak. The wines are very low in alcoholic strength and early harvesting preserves the natural acidity. Precision, clarity with long term ageability are the focus. Silkman Semillon shows this through an early February harvest, using neutral yeast ensuring a quick start to ferment. The wine is then fermented in stainless steel and sits on gross lees with stirring for about 2 months. The wine is fermented to about 3gms residual sugar. It is fined, filtered and bottled 4 months after harvest. The Hunter Semillon style shouldn’t be confused with the Semillon’s of South Australia (Barossa and Clare Valley’s), where we see a riper, richer, fatter and oilier style wine from a later harvest.

 Silkman have burst on the scene in Australia, recently named in James Halliday’s ten best new wineries 2016, taking out the prestigious 2015 James Halliday Australian Chardonnay Challenge and Liz was the first winemaker to earn Hunter Valley winemaker of the year.

It was only a matter of time until Liz Silkman (nee Jackson) and her husband Shaun played their own hand of wines in the Hunter Valley, and now they have it might just be the trump. The young couple have unmatched experience in the Hunter Valley region, both are born and bred locals, having made wine and managed wineries in the area for over 10 years. Shaun manages production at his fathers First Creek Wines, whilst Liz is the chief winemaker. They haven’t let go of their day jobs, but in their spare time have recently put their own name on some wines, with the small batch ‘Silkman’ wines first released on the 2013 vintage.

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