Skip to main content

Pondering Hunter Valley Semillon

Image
By
Every great, classic wine is born of a knife-edge. Benchmark whites – especially fresh, firm-spined whites - usually come from cool edges. Think of German Riesling, Burgundian Chardonnay, Loire Sauvignon and Galician Albariño.

Hunter Valley is an (Australian) spitting distance from Sydney. This is the oldest wine region in Australia, with some of the oldest vines not just of that country, but (thanks to Phylloxera) of the world. Hunter is home to some of the most famous and established names in Australian winemaking, such as Drayton, Tulloch and McWilliams.

The source of this fame is invigorating, nuanced and white: Hunter Valley Semillon is described as iconic, and a benchmark. It accounts for a tiny percentage (about 3) of Australian wine output. This is a specialist offering. Wine geeks adore it, but Semillon is under the radar of many wine consumers. When it comes to Australian whites, I find lower awareness of Hunter Valley Semillon than of the persuasive parvenu Chardonnay, and of the widely planted and (in Australia at least) revered Riesling. While producers of those two varieties are still perfecting a quest for longevity, Hunter Valley Semillon is unique among dry Australian whites for its proven capacity, even destiny, for 10 plus years of ever-blossoming life.

The Hunter is an improbable place to make fresh white wine. (As witnessed by its success with ripe, full reds from that sun-lover, Shiraz.) New South Wales is hot and humid. Hunter Valley Semillon is a benchmark because it is an expression of the time-honoured magic intersection behind all great wine. City needs wine. Environment near city challenging for wine. Humans forced to come up with something and stumble across a happy accident of a particular grape, in a particular place, treated in a particular way. 

Hunter Valley Semillon is picked very early. Grape sugars are moderate, and acidities notably fresh. In more ‘suitable’ climates, such as Bordeaux, this approach yields fresh, grassy wines of modest intensity and fairly anonymous character. In the Hunter, the hot days and warm nights turbo-charge the ripening and developing of flavour compounds. High humidity joins the ripening effort, by reducing water stress and encouraging vine metabolism.

These early picked wines are therefore a delicious paradox. Fresh acidity and modest (10-11%) alcohol combine with complex, nuanced fruit of honey, grass and citrus. Texture, especially with age, is a joy of good Hunter Valley Semillon. It is glossy, mouth coating and refined. With age, the golden colour, smoky aromatics and slinky weight might make you suspect some new oak ageing, but you’d be wrong. Hunter Semillon is (as far as I know) always oak-free. Funny, when you think how the ‘other’ great, dry age-worthy Semillon – the wonderful white Graves of Bordeaux – do so well with oak-aged Semillon. But then, Hunter Semillon is only like itself. And that’s why it’s a treasure.

We have some lovely Hunter Valley Semillon from Tower Estate available here.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The truly magical 2016 Château Cos d’Estournel

By
  We are delighted to offer a parcel of the truly magical 2016 Château Cos d’Estournel.  Château Cos d'Estournel is named after its 19th century owner, Louis-Gaspard d'Estournel, and it was he who built the beautiful oriental edifice that is a landmark for any tourist in the Médoc. Today Cos d'Estournel is without doubt the leading estate in St-Estéphe.  It is located in the south of the appellation on the border with Pauillac and its vineyards are superbly sited on a south-facing gravel ridge with a high clay content, just north of Lafite. ‘This is a monumental, benchmark Cos d’Estournel that will give not years but decades of pleasure’ Neal Martin   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 Gaja Barbaresco

By
  This week we had the opportunity to taste the extraordinary new release from Gaja - the 2018 Barbaresco - with Gaia Gaja at Maccelaio restaurant in London.  The wine was absolutely stunning and this came as no surprise, as  Gaja decided to include all of their famed single vineyard juice (from Sori San Lorenzo, Sori Tildin & Costa Russi) into their estate Barbaresco.   Perfumed, complex and with such beautiful finesse and elegance, it was simply a joy to taste. 'The hallmark of the Gaja estate, the Barbaresco is sourced from 14 vineyards within Barbaresco and Treiso. For the 2018 vintage, there will be no single cru bottlings for Barbaresco' Jeb Dunnuck   Gaja Barbaresco has an extraordinary track record and this is a wine that the family have been making since 1859. It is 100% Nebbiolo sourced from the families various vineyards located in the municipality of Barbaresco. The winery was founded in 1859 in Langhe, Piedmont by Giovanni Gaja and it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Silvia Vannucci's Piaggia Carmignano Riserva 2019 & 2020 Piaggia Cabernet Franc Poggio de’Colli

By
  We all know the story of Super Tuscan wines, how in the 1970's the likes of Antinori broke the rules and introduced French grape varieties to Italy. Hold on. Re-wind. Quite far, in fact, back to the 1500's when Henry II of France married Catherine de Medici. The French gifted the Medici family some Cabernet vines, which they planted in their vineyards in Carmignano. Carmignano is a tiny 110 hectare appellation in Tuscany, protected from the cold of the north by the Apennines, and from the vagaries of coastal weather by the Montalbano hills, with soils rich in clay and schist. It already had a great reputation for growing local varieties like Sangiovese - by the 1700's it had already been given a protected classification - and it has been blending these with Cabernet varieties for hundreds of years. Roll forward to the 1970's, and Maur...
Post a Comment
Read more