As I remember it from my time as a Sydneysider, pretty much every Hunter harvest was declared a huge success and described in superlatives by the late, great winemaker Murray Tyrrell. Sometimes he even proclaimed vintage greatness before a grape was picked. At least this is how I recall it: a Sydney summer wasn't complete without a Murray Tyrrell "great vintage" shout.

So after the Winemakers' Federation of Australia issued its 2014 vintage round-up well over a year ago, I had a little chuckle when Murray's son Bruce Tyrrell, who now heads up the lauded family winery, was quoted as saying of the vintage: "My father, Murray, was famous for regularly declaring a 'vintage of the century'. Well, this is possibly the best of both this and last century."