Tag Archives: Semillon

A disappointment, but one moves on!

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Last night, my lovely bride and I drove to the Hunter Valley and arrived in time for dinner at the Blue Thai restaurant which we really enjoy.  The food is great and the crowd is certainly interesting and entertaining as the restaurant abuts a trailer and camping park.  It is a BYO restaurant, which is a concept I always like!  There were several cartons of box wine sitting on other tables (why come to the Hunter Valley and get box wine?!?!) and I expect there were not many other bottles over $10 in the restaurant that night.

Yet, Thai food has such tremendous flavors and deserves to be paired with good wine.  We usually bring a Gewurztraminer, Semillon or Riesling.  Tonight we brought along a bottle of the 1995 Penfolds Adelaide Hills Semillon Trial Bin.  I have four bottles of this, but had not had much interest in trying one as it was an inexpensive wine I purchased back in 1997 in Melbourne.  It had not been cared for well either in that it made a trip across the ocean to the US in 1998 when I moved back there, and then a trip back home in 2000 when I moved here permanently.  Fortunately, most of the wines that made the journey over and back did not suffer much (the better ones were stored in Styrofoam cases) , but some of the cheaper ones were affected.

Recently, I have come to realize that the 1995 Adelaide Hills Trial Bin was one of the wines that was an experiment as a possibility for Penfolds White Grange (according the the public, not Penfolds) which ultimately resulted in the Yatarnna Bin 144 Chardonnay.  Plus some of the wine auction houses I was talking with expressed interest in selling this wine at auction and that peaked my curiosity.  I decided it was worth trying a bottle to see if it was still good.  After all, it was selling for between $25 – $30 per bottle on the secondary market.

Crumbled cork

Halliday reviewed this wine a long time ago and said it was drinkable until about 2003 and here I am thinking about trying it almost a decade after that.  Yet, I have had many aged Semillons that have really stood the test of time.  However the bottle I opened last night, had not!  It was unfortunately corked.  I used the standard cork screw from the restaurant, but the cork just crumbled.  I then drove home to get my Ah So cork screw.  The Ah So cork screw is about the only way to get old cork out of an old bottle.  It is designed to be able to get old and soggy corks out of the bottle, and I may have had some luck had I started with this, but the cork was so soggy and cushy that I could not get a good grip on it.  It was the first time ever that I was not able to remove a cork with the Ah So, and had to push it into the bottle.

I was still hopeful because the wine had a beautiful golden color to it, and their was no obvious fault when visualizing the wine.  However, it had lost much of its flavor and had a metallic taste to it.  It tasted like someone had squeezed a melon onto a piece of sheet metal and licked it.  (I am imagining this is what it would have tasted like – I have not actually done this!)  You could tell this was a fine wine in its time, but had oxidized too much.  I still managed a few sips with dinner to try to figure out what it would have been like without the fault, but we left 2/3rds of the bottle and mostly had water with dinner.

I am hopeful that the remaining three bottles of this wine may have traveled better than this one did.  Cork variability can be quite large.  Recently about two weeks apart, I had two bottles of the 2003 Blueberry Hills Pinot Noir and the second one was significantly better than the first one (as described in post).  Since both Pinot Noirs had been stored properly and in exactly the same manner, the difference could only be attributable to the difference in cork structure.  Therefore, I will try each bottle of the 1995 Penfolds Adelaide hills Semillon Trial Bin and hopefully one or two of the remaining three bottles will be real gems!

The region makes the varietal

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In several previous posts, I provide an overview of Australia wine regions and what grapes grow best in what regions.  If you have not read those posts or cannot remember them, I urge you to read them again!  The region makes the varietal (grape) far better or worse.  Here are the links for your reference and a quick overview:

I assume most wine makers try their best to get the most out of the grapes they are using to make wine.  But to give them a fighting chance, they need to use grapes from the regions most appropriate for growing that particular type of grape.  The different varieties of grapes have different characteristics which make them more (or less) suitable to be grown in particular regions.  Some grapes require a longer growing season than others and if in the wrong place, they will either end up not flavorful or ripe enough, or with too high an alcohol content for that grape.  Some grapes have thicker skins than others, and some reflect the influence of the type of soil and climate more (or less) than other grapes.

This mean that the certain grapes, year-in, year-out, will grow far better in certain regions than others.  You know I I love my Hunter Valley Semillon, Shiraz, and Chardonnay.  The region is perfect for growing these grapes, and there are some vineyards in the Hunter Valley (due to their specific location, if they are flat or on a hill, etc.) that yield still better results than other vineyards.  An example of this would be the Stevens vineyard for Shiraz and used by Tyrrells and De Iuliis.  Another is the Braemore vineyard for Semillon and from which Andrew Thomas makes his great Braemore Semillon.

But this also means that there are certain grapes not suited to the Hunter Valley and these include Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir!  If you want a good Cabernet Sauvignon, get one from the McLaren Vale or Margaret River.  If you want a good Pinot Noir, get one from Victoria, Tasmania or New Zealand.  Do not buy a Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir from the Hunter Valley!  Sure you say, but how about Lakes Folly Cabernet Sauvignon?  And I am sure some of their vintages are quite nice.  But why spend $70 bottle for this wine, when you can get an outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon from McLaren Vale or Margaret River for $20.  And if you do not know what you are doing nor follow the results of individual vintages for each region, you statistically will be far happier with any given vintage from McLaren Vale or Margaret River for a Cabernet Sauvignon than you will from the Hunter Valley.

I recently have had two bottles of Hunter Valley Pinot Noir.  One I thought was reasonable, that one being the Blueberry Hill Pinot Noir.  It was certainly decent, but not as good as most other Pinot Noirs I have had from Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand or certainly Burgundy.  The other one I opened last Saturday was the 2005/2009 blend Sandalyn Pinot Noir.  Frankly, I suffered through a couple of glasses of this on Saturday and what was left was down-right undrinkable today.  I bought nine bottles of this wine when taking a pasta cooking class at Sandalyn last year.  Frankly, drinking this wine now, I am not sure what possessed me to buy it.  I may have been enthused by the pasta making class and the fine meal we had afterwards, or caught up in the enthusiasm of the wine maker explaining to me how this was made in ‘a real Burgundy’ style.

Usually, I try to share and promote very positive wine-drinking and lifestyle experiences, but I also need to share my negative experiences to provide a balance and credibility to the wines and products I promote (which I do without any commercial ties BTW).  The 2005/2009 Sandalyn Pinot Noir was a good effort by the wine maker, but it is not a good wine and it is not going to last.  I have eight more bottles of this and will need to use it as cooking wine.  Or bring a few bottles to a BBQ where I know I can wait until a few hours into the BBQ and nobody will be able to discern the quality of this Pinot Noir after becoming well lubricated with beer and other mediocre wines!

Both the Blueberry Hill and the Sandalyn from the Hunter were mistakes to buy and I will make sure to follow my own advice and only buy grapes from the regions that are most suitable for growing them.  I was hoping to have the remaining Sandalyn with Bangers and Mash tonight, but will now maybe look at a Pinot Noir from Nuits – St George!

Bin 144 Yatarnna – Penfolds White Grange

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With the great success of Grange over many years, Penfolds has always been interested in the concept of the creating a ‘White’ Grange.  The Penfolds Bin 144 Yatarnna is as close as they have come and it is commonly referred to as White Grange.  It is made from reserved Chardonnay grapes and usually cost around $130 per bottle.  I was very fortunate to pick up several dozen of the 2006 Yatarnna for a good price when some were found and treated as excess stock by the dealer.

During the 1990’s, Penfolds tried a number of ‘trial bins’ in an attempt to create a White Grange before settling on Yatarnna.  And to be honest, Penfolds was looking for an iconic white wine to match Grange, but never really had to the intent of marketing any wine as White Grange.  This was a moniker of wine writers around Australia.

In 1992, Penfolds started creating a number of trial bins to create an iconic white wine.  I actually have four bottles of the 1995 Penfolds Adelaide Hills Trial Bin Semillon, which I bought in 1997 in a Melbourne bottle shop.  I have not tried one yet, but am now excited to find out if this wine was a mistake or not!  I was only spending between $12 – $18 per bottle then for wines I did not know anything about, but wanted to try.  (In 1997, I did pay $200 per bottle for several bottles of the 1992 Penfolds Grange which were released that year.)  Therefore, I am certain I did not pay more than $18 for the Trial Bin Semillon I picked up.

One of the characteristics of Grange is that is was built to last a very long time, and I expect they wanted to have the same characteristic for an iconic white.  Therefore, Semillon certainly would have been a good choice of grape to experiment with.  In selling off wine recently and thinning my stock, I had the four bottles of the 1995 Penfolds Adelaide Hills Trial Bin Semillon on sale for $10 per bottle!  Fortunately, nobody bought any.  I will be trying a bottle soon to decide if I have an unknown gem here or not.  If so, then I will gladly share the remaining bottles with some great friends, and if not, we will use the remaining bottles for cooking wine!

But back to the Penfolds Bin 144 Yatarnna.  This is one of the finest Chardonnays you will find in Australia.  I still like my Montrachets a bit better, but the Yatarnna is a great Chardonnay.  I am currently sipping a 2006 Yatarnna which is stunning and one of the better vintages.  (The first vintage of Yatarnna was in 1995.)  It has powerful lemon flavors and some peach and grass flavor.  It is mellow but with a slight edge and crispness.  This wine should drink well for another five years or so.

I selected this wine to go with my wife’s homemade chicken pot pie which is in the oven now!  I am looking forward to that combination and am sure she will have an upcoming recipe in her blog “DAZ in the Kitchen.”  This mellow, yet robust wine will match beautifully win the chicken pot pie.

I have been upset at some of the commercial finanglings of TWE with the Penfolds brand, and have sold off most of my Penfolds inventory, but I have a dozen of this great wine left.  My wife has an easy way to tell if a wine is outstanding or not, and that is to ‘not notice’ that the bottle has been emptied so quickly when it it just the two of us drinking it, and that always happens with the 2006 Penfolds Bin 144 Yatarnna!  In fact, my wife just took a sip and stated, “You see, this wine does all the right things.  You sip it, it hits my palate perfectly and goes right down without thinking about it.”

While I find fault in some of TWE’s commerical approaches (TWE owns Penfolds), I cannot fault Penfolds for the passion they have always exhibited in making great wines and the 2006 Bin 144 Yatarnna is one of them!

My 5th best wine meal ever!

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In a recent post, I list the wines that were consumed in my Top 5 wine meals ever.  They were all great meals, and you will notice that three of the five took place at The Cut Bar & Grill.  This is my favorite steak house in Sydney.  They have a great sommelier and wine list and a great menu.  It is a perfect place to host a business meal, or a personal celebration.  We frequent it regularly and usually order wine off the menu, but sometimes we ask if for a special occasion, we may bring our own wine.

The reason we do that is because we want to make the night even more special by having spectacular wine and being able to match the wine to the occasion and the people involved.  When we do this, The Cut Bar & Grill charge $25 per bottle for corkage which is very reasonable as they decant the wine, pour it for you and have to clear and wash the glasses and decanters.  It saves us a great deal of money also and allows us to spend more on their great food!

That is why The Cut Bar & Grill is one of our favorite places and is the venue for three of the Top 5 wine meals ever!  Make sure to frequent them and check them out.

For my fifth best wine meal ever, the situation and wines consumed were as follows:

#5 evening – My 59th birthday – November 26, 2011, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon
  • 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay
  • 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 1975 Lindemans Porphry 

We shared a great evening with best friends, Owen and Lucy, Ric and Cristina, and Kevin and Yanna.  The eight of us often share a great meal and wine together and everyone has a pretty good palate and enjoys good wines.

When at The Cut Bar & Grill, we usually start with oysters, a plate of cured meats and a plate of salami.  Plus they have the most amazing Sourdough bread served with oil and butter.  We will serve up the white wines with this course and relaxed conversation.

This is typically followed by our selection of some fine red meat, either the slow roast (prime rib for you Americans in the audience!), or a Waygu New York Strip or Scotch Fillet, or one of the other great steaks they serve .  This gives us ample time to enjoy the reds.

And finally, we move onto dessert from their great dessert menu and have an assorted cheese plate to go with the Sticky!

Each of the wines that evening was superb in it’s own right and made a good line-up for the evening.  The 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon is among the best ever made – just look at all those gold medals!  This wine is crisp, yet polished and beautifully balanced.  It went great with the oysters.  While the famous 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon is the iconic vintage, the 2005 vintage in the Hunter Valley was truly outstanding and in another ten years, this may pass the 1999 in reputation.  (Hope I can make my remaining few bottles last that long!)

Waverley Estate is known for their aged white wines, both Semillon and Chardonnay.  Their 2000 Chardonnay is spectacular.  This wine drinks like a Montrachet, but at about a quarter of the price!  It is rich, smooth and buttery.  This wine relaxes you after the crisper, more vibrant 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1.

We then opened the wine of the evening, the 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  I have never had a better Cabernet Sauvignon (except the 1991 Caymus Special Reserve from Napa Valley now that I think about it).  This wine is perfectly balanced, large fruit taste with the slightest taste of  smoke and leather.  I had a few bottles of this previously and it is ethereal.  This is one of those wines my wife would say is like “sex in the mouth” when drinking it.

I always like to start with the slightly lighter, more elegant red before moving onto the heartier Shiraz, which this evening was the 2000 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea.  This wine was a real treat.  I only had two bottles and this was the first one I drank.  The other was polished off last week at the #4 Best Wine Meal with my BPAY teammates.  This is an excellent wine, with good tannins, and lots of refined fruit and spice.  It is perfectly integrated and the amount of age on the wine was perfect.

Another highlight from this evening was the full bottle of 1975 Lindemans Porphry.  Wow, what a treat that was!  Any time you are drinking a 35 year old wine that still tastes as fresh as this one, you are in for a treat.  I am delighted to know I have another three bottles of this!  It has a rich honey taste which almost sticks to the inside of your cheeks.  Needless to say, it went well with dessert.

When drinking a line-up like this, it is important to get the wines in the right order, generally going from white to red to Sticky, and the lighter, crisper grape to sturdier, heavier grape (for example, the Cabernet Sauvignon before the Shiraz), and younger to older vintages.  Then the anticipation and satisfaction continues to build throughout the evening.

While this was a great evening, it does not compare to the four others I have mentioned.  Stay tuned as those will be described in future posts over the next several weeks.

If it’s Semillon, make it a Hunter Valley Semillon!

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In most parts of the world, except Sauternes and Australia, Semillon is a lesser known white grape compared to Chardonnay, Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc.  That is a shame because Semillon is an amazing grape highly influenced by terroir and goes well with a wide variety of food.  I love Semillon with eggs (my breakfast wine with an omelet or fritatta!).  It also goes well with Thai food, Indian food, pesto (at least I hope so because I am going to try that this evening!), denser fish, and some crustaceans.

It also goes well with cheese or on its own.  In fact, I am drinking a glass now as I write this blog.  I have a rare opportunity to spend the next few hours uninterrupted, writing and drinking wine, and my wine of choice this afternoon is Semillon.  I must admit that I thought a Riesling would go nice with the chicken and spiral pasta with pesto meal we are having tonight, but I wanted to try a Semillon, especially the one featured in this post, which is the 1999 Moss Wood Semillon.

Frankly, I only drink Semillon from the Hunter Valley or Botrytis Semillon in dessert wines from Sauternes; such as the world famous and world best Chateau D’Yquem (which I claim is the best wine in the world in a previous post).  Why would you do anything else?  Hunter Valley Semillons are without comparison.  I have had some Semillon from Margaret River blended with Sauvignon Blanc in the Pierro LTC which is an excellent wine for the money and the 25% Semillon makes the Sauvignon Blanc actually drinkable and a good wine to match with fish.  I do not enjoy Sauvignon Blanc as a grape.  For starters, it is the most identifiable and pronounced tasting grape there is.  If you cannot blind taste a Sauvignon Blanc, you are going to have a tough time recognizing any other type of grape.  Sauvignon Blanc just does not have the subtlety of flavor that the other grapes do.  People often describe Sauvignon Blan as tasting like “cat’s pee!”  This should be all the commentary we need to steer away from Sauvignon Blanc!

I was recently given a bottle of the 1999 Moss Wood Semillon.  Moss Wood is one of the premier wineries in the Margaret River and makes a magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon.  Therefore, if I was going to experiment with a Semillon away from the Hunter Valley, this would be a good one to try.

This wine is very flavorful with melon tastes and still has some acid.  However, it is not well balanced and seems like the flavors are fighting with each other and fighting my palette.  With 13 years of age, you pick up some great flavors (and it does have a beautiful color which provides anticipation that this will be a great wine – only to disappoint once you drink it), but for a museum Semillon, one could do far better back in the Hunter Valley.  (See my post on Museum Semillons for some great recommendations.)

I was told this wine had some variability with the corks, but the cork I removed was in perfect condition.  The bottle I have opened is as good as it is going to get for this wine.  It is enjoyable enough to drink and I will continue to write with a glass at my side and have some more with dinner, but it would not be among my favorites.  Twice I have brought this wine over to friends for a meal, but have not opened it, and glad I am tasting it alone as this is not a wine that I would delight in sharing.  Again, it is decent enough to drink, but with so many great, inexpensive wines, why go with a ‘decent’ wine?

If you are going to go for Semillon, make sure to get it from the Hunter Valley, or Sauternes if you can afford it!

Five best wine meals ever – Part 1

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I have had some great wines in my lifetime. Most have been memorable of their own accord. But the memories that last forever are when you have a line-up of great friends, great food and great wine, all which match perfectly. The memories of those times are enjoyed forever!

Over the next few weeks, I will be describing each meal, the event that warranted it, the friends involved and the wines, all which made the evening special. But the ranking to make my Top Five all-time wine drinking meals is judged on the wine itself and the wine line-up being truly great. While the friends and food added to the evening, they did not contribute to how that evening ranked – only the wine counted!

In this post, I will provide the event, and the list of wines. In subsequent posts, I will describe the friends and food that matched the wine that made those evenings special. My Top Five evenings (in reverse order) are the following:

#5 evening – My 59th birthday – November 26, 2011, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon
  • 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay
  • 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 1975 Lindemans Porphry

#4 evening – BPAY Architecture and Support team reunion – August 29, 2012, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet
  • 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
  • 1990 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz blend)
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 2006 Chateau Reuissec Sauternes

#3 evening – My 58th birthday – December 2, 2010, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • Pommeray Brut Champagne NV
  • 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz
  • 2001 Yalumba Octavius Shiraz
  • 1981 Penfolds Grange
  • 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes Dessert wine
  • 1997 Château D’Yquem Sauternes

#2 evening – Deanna’s 41th birthday – March 17, 2012, at home with Jay Huxley Masterchef cooking

  • 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
  • 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling
  • 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
  • 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
  • 2005 Chateau Brane-Cantenac (Margeaux)
  • 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes
  • 1997 Château D’Yquem Sauternes

#1 evening – Deanna’s 40th birthday – March 19, 2011, at Lindemans Winery

  • 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
  • 1987 Lindemans Padthaway Watervale Riesling
  • 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
  • 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
  • 1996 Lindemans St George Cabernet Savignon
  • 1995 Yarra Yering Dry #1
  • 1971 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
  • 1971 Penfolds Grange
  • 1971 Château D’Yquem Sauternes
  • 1957 Lindemans Vintage Port

While we have had some evenings (such as our anniversaries) where the wines have been just as spectacular, they were limited to two bottles. What made the Top Five truly stand out was that we had more friends and more wines to sample, enjoy and compare.

I am actually not sure if I can write about the great time we had for Deanna’s 40th birthday without passing out as just writing up the list has me quivering! I am uncertain if we will ever be able to top that evening, but my 60th birthday is coming up in a few months, so we do have a reason to try! Hopefully, I can use that night to knock off the current #5 and possibly reposition a few of the other four spots!

Should you decant wine?

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In my opinion – “Yes, most of the time.”  I am a believer that spending some time with air after opening a bottle helps to finish the wine and make it closer to its optimal drinking state.  This is not always the case, but should be considered most of the time.  Plus the ritual of decanting a wine can enhance the sensual pleasure of drinking wine.  I am not big on “form over function,” but do get joy out of decanting a bottle, watching the wine spiral down the decanter and the smell rising up as the wine breathes.  Check out my recent blog post “Wine Foreplay and Sensual Pleasures” to find out more on how sensual, almost erotic decanting wine can be!

The visual and nasal aspects of decanting are both enjoyable, and it builds anticipation for the liquid to hit your palate!

Minimally, all wines should be opened and given several (5 – 10) minutes for any odors that may be still captured in the head space (the air at the top of a bottle of wine regardless if under cork or screw top) of the bottle should be given time to flow out.  This will improve the drinking experience by removing any intervening unpleasant smells.

It is difficult to determine the absolute optimal time to open a bottle of wine.  Fortunately, many good wines can be drunk over a several year period where they are truly outstanding.  However, it is often the case that when we open a bottle, the wine is still a little tight, and exposing it to air for 30 minutes up to several hours can really help the wine.  The transformation includes the wine becoming smoother in texture and more mellow in taste.  The little bit of remaining tightness is gone or significantly reduced.

In general, decanting a wine for 30 minutes up to two hours should do the trick.  However, some really complex and very well structured wines that demand to be in the bottle for 10 – 20 years, may require a decanting period of two to three hours or even longer.  The 1987 Lindemans Pyrus for example, should be decanted for 6 – 8 hours to provide optimal drinking pleasure.  This is because of the nature and role of the Cabernet Franc grape as part of the blend.  This is a complex grape which evolves over a very long period of time, making some of the 20 – 25 year old Pyrus a truly magnificent drink.  Yet, it needs long exposure to air to really complete the process.

I tasted this wine a while back at Lindeman’s after it was open only two hours and while I liked the wine, I felt it had bit of an aftertaste, so had a difficult time committing to buying much of the wine.  My bride though who has a much better palate than me, loved the wine and insisted we go back the following day to get some more.  (This was a $90 bottle of wine, but because the bottle had been shortfilled at 747 ml instead of the full 750 ml, they were going for $30 per bottle).  The bottle had stayed open over night and when I tried it the following morning, it was absolutely brilliant!  We ended up buying the last four bottles and I am really glad we did as we only have three bottles left now.  This is a complex wine that is 25 years old, and it needs a lot of time to breathe!  But most bottles require far less decanting time to finish off nicely.

However, be very careful and I suggest not decanting very old and fragile wines for too long.  They lose flavor far too quickly and will become tepid or even flat.  While many wines can be drunk over several days, older, fragile wines should be drunk within an hour after being opened.

Most people only think of decanting red wines, but I have found great benefit in decanting really large, robust white wines also.  5 – 20 year old aged Chardonnay, Semillon and other whites deserve an hour of decanting to really bring out the flavor, as does truly great Montrachet wines.

And in case there is any doubt, do not decant a Champagne!  It will quickly lose its bubbles!  Drink Champagne right from the bottle!

The Many Faces of Semillon – Part 2: Museum-Released and Aged Semillons

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In my post entitled Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3 where I described the Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions, I extol the unique and symbiotic relationship between The Hunter Valley and the Semillon grape.
 
Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

  • Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
  • Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
  • “Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released 

The discussion of young and medium-aged Semillons is covered in the previous post “The Many Faces of Semillon:  Part 1 – Young and Medium-Aged Semillons”.  In Part 2, we will now discuss the beauty of Museum-Released and Aged Semillons.

While I like my young and medium-aged Semillons, “museum-released” and aged (10 years or older) Semillons are in a class by themselves.  The older Semillons can still have a bit of acid, but have soften considerably, and developed a complexity and balance of tastes which is ethereal in experience.  The golden color, followed by nosing such a wine (I actually use Riedel Montrachet glasses instead of the Riedel Semillon / Riesling glassware for my truly aged Semillons.  See recent post on “What’s in a Glass?”) and flavors in your mouth provide one of life’s most precious pleasures!

I find an aged Semillon is best matched by scallops, either fried in butter, or made into a scallop boudin.  The food needs to have some richness to balance the richness of the aged Semillon.

My favorite three Museum Semillons are the 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1, the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro, but top of the list is the 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon, their second vintage.  Unfortunately, there is no more to be found and I have only two bottles of the 1990 Waverley Estate left in my cellar.  However, the 1992 and 1996 Waverly Estate Semillons are magnificent also, and the 1998 and 2000 vintages are coming into their own.

I have done a tasting of the 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1, the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro, and the 1999 Waverley Estate Semillons and it was difficult to pick a winner.  Each was truly outstanding in its own right.

A 10 – 20 year old Semillon can be truly magnificent.  The only problem is that there is some variability in the taste caused by difference in cork.  I had to pour a 1994 Waverley Estate down the drain because of a poor cork.  They have been good and always replaced a bad bottle for me, but is can still be a disappointment when you have had one great bottle and open a second one of the same vintage to find a small and discernible difference.  That is why I am a fan of moving from cork to screw-top.

As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say.  A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.

I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley.  There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others.  My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D’Yquem.  (See my post on “Why I think Chauteau D’Yquem is the Best Wine in the World”, my most-viewed post of all time!)

The Many Faces of Semillon – Part 1: Young and Medium-Aged Semillons

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In my post entitled Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3 where I described the Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions, I extol the unique and symbiotic relationship between The Hunter Valley and the Semillon grape.
 
Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

  • Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
  • Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
  • “Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released 

Because of the many different faces and tastes of Semillon, it has a multitude of uses.  It can be enjoyed on its own, with cheese and crackers, with Indian or Thai food, with eggs such as when serving an omelet or fritatta (one of the reasons I think of Semillon as the ultimate breakfast wine!), a Tandoori chicken pizza, or many other foods.  I also find when you need that 100 ml of white wine for cooking that Semillon fuses beautifully and enhances, but does not overpower the food with which it is blended.  My bride has a number of recipes in her great blog DAZ in the Kitchen where wine is required to cook the perfect meal.

But the real question is “Which age Semillon goes best with what type of food?”  With sharp cheeses such as a Blue Cheese or a Gorgonzola (which my bride uses when making a prawn Risotto and is outstanding!) demands a newer and crisper, more acidic Semillon.  I personally would almost always rather drink an aged or Museum-released Semillon.  However, with a sharp cheese and when a bit of acid is required, you should try a younger Semillon.  I have found two younger Semillons that in my opinion stand out (the rest are just not that interesting yet).  They are the Andrew Thomas Braemore Semillon and the Tyrrell’s Johnno Semillon.

Andrew Thomas is one of finest wine makers in the Hunter Valley, if not one of the finest in the world.  And he is a really nice guy also!  I have had the pleasure of sitting next to him at a degustation affair with matching wines a few years back, and others have told me how pleasurable he was to meet and talk to when watching sport in a bar!  A great guy making great wine!

I have been surprised to to learn after buying some excellent Shiraz’ such as the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz and the 2007 Pokolbin Estate Shiraz, that Andrew was the wine maker for both of those wines.  But that is a topic for another post.  Back to Semillon.

I have had the 2009 Braemore and it is brilliant.  Crisp, a touch of acid and a bit of lemon flavor.  Many young Semillons taste flat to me, but the 2009 Braemore is ripe with flavor.

The Tyrrells’ Johnno is the other young Semillon I enjoy.  I have had the 2010 and 2011 vintages and both are exceptional.  It is a bit more edgy and acidic than the Braemore in my opinion, even though Tyrrell’s positions it as a smoother type of Semillon.  However, it is a most enjoyable drink when you need to pick a Semillon right from the bottle shop.

I really start to enjoy my Semillons though when they have 5 or more years in the bottle.  They become less acidic (even thought many still have a lot of acid and a lot of life in them yet!) and more complex.  Both the Thomas Braemore and the Tyrrell’s Johnno Semillons are worth keeping in the bottle for a few years if you have the discipline and patience!

There are almost too many good Hunter Valley Semillons to mention here, but for me, the top class includes the Tyrrels Vat 1 (especially the 2005 vintage), The Meerea Park Alexander Munro and Meerea Park Teracotta Semillons (anywhere from the 2004 – 2006 vintages), The 2005 Brokenwood ILR (I was fortunate to pick up the last 9 bottles at the cellar door a little while back), the 2004 Lindemans Semillon and the 2004 Thomas Braemore.  I am sure I have left some great wines off this list, but I can attest the wines I mentioned within are truly outstanding medium-aged Semillons.

These “medium-aged” Semillons go really well with egg dishes.  I had about a third of a bottle of the 2004 Meerea Park Teracotta left over one Sunday morning and heated up some leftover quiche for a late breakfast at about 11 am and a glass of the Semillon to go with it.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  Since I rarely drink in the morning, my bride and I now look for reasons to make egg dishes (such as a Salmon Fritatta or Quiche Lorraine) so we have the excuse to drink a medium-aged Semillon with dinner!  I also like my medium-aged Semillons with Indian and Thai food.

As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say.  A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.

I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley.  There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others.  My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D’Yquem.  (See my post on “Why I think Chauteau D’Yquem is the Best Wine in the World”, my most-viewed post of all time!)

Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3

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Part 3 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions

In Part 1, we discussed some of the reasons why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.   In Part 2, we described where Australia’s prominent wine regions were located.

Discussing, even in simplest terms, each region, takes up some space, so I am breaking the wine regions up into the four large wine regions which I describe in Part 3 (this post):

  • Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
  • Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close-by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
  • Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close-by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
  • Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia

In Part 4 (next post), we will then describe what makes each smaller region so special and what grapes grow best in those regions:

  • Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
  • Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
  • Tasmania
  • Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

Hunter Valley:

The Hunter Valley is divided into the Lower Hunter and the Upper Hunter.  However, the Upper Hunter only has four cellar doors remaining, and a number of vineyards that produce and sell grapes. The Lower Hunter is where the action is.  There are about 150 wineries in the Lower Hunter.  The Hunter Valley is close to the ocean, but not right on top of it, so it gets some good breezes, decent rainfall (some years far too much rain fall!), and has some great soil conditions.  The best known grapes in  the Hunter Valley are Semillon, Shiraz and Chardonnay.

Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

  • Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
  • Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
  • “Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released

The Shiraz of The Hunter Valley tends to be more spicy than fruity often described with labels as “peppery”, “smokey”, “leathery”.  Hunter Shiraz’s also tend to contain slightly less alcohol and is more refined than the Shiraz of Barossa Valley, by comparison.  I would consider the Hunter Shiraz’ to compare with “old world” style Hermitage.

I have recently become a real fan of Hunter Valley Chardonnays and believe both the lighter crisper Chardonnays and the aged Chardonnays of the Hunter are as good as any in Australia now.

Hunter Valley Top Wines:  Semillon, Shiraz, Chardonnay

Barossa Valley:

The Barossa Valley is often labeled as Australia’s “Best Wine Region”, even though I am sure many wine producers from other regions would deny that claim!  However, the Barossa Valley has a lot going for it which justifies that label.  They produce great grapes, have a variety of micro-climates and regions, variety of elevations, and some of the best wine labels in Australia, including Penfolds, Henschke, and Grosset among many others.

The Barossa is known for big, robust, fruity, Shiraz, often high in alcohol.  It is also know for superb Rieslings, especially in the Clare and Eden Valleys.  As testimonial, I have about 6 Australian Rieslings in my cellar and they all come from around the Barossa Valley.

McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide is known for making superb Cabernet Sauvignons.  McLaren Vale is close to the sea and gets some nice breezes to help the grapes mature in a consistent manner.

There are a lot of other grapes that do well across the Barossa Valley, given its variety of micro-climates and great overall growing conditions.

Barossa Valley Top Wines:  Shiraz, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon

Yarra Valley:

The Yarra Valley makes some of Australia’s best sparkling wines.  They are also know for great Shiraz, as is the Heathcote region nearby.

But what I love most about the Yarra Valley and the surrounding areas of Geelong and the Mornington Penisula are the great Pinot Noir wines that come from this region.  The slightly cooler climate is perfect for growing the Pinot Noir grape.  Everyone is talking about New Zealand Pinot Noirs, but my favorites all come from Victoria.

Also, for pure enjoyment and if you only have a day to tour a wine country, the Yarra Valley is quicker to get to than The Hunter Valley or Margaret River from the closest big near-by city, so you can pack in more fun in a twelve hour day than with a number of the other regions, which almost demand two, if not three days.

Yarra Valley Top Wines:  Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Sparkling

Margaret River:

For pure elegance, I love the wines from the Margaret River.  Sea breezes and some of the best soil in Australia for growing wine exists in Margaret River.  It is often compared to Napa Valley and some great American wineries have purchased vineyards here.  In fact, this is the Australian wine region most noted for Zinfandel, a popular California grape.

Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays are the stand-out wines from Margaret River.  A number of premium brands such as Leeuwin Estate, Pierro and Moss Wood come from this region.  While one of the smaller regions compared to the three described above, Margaret River still “punches above the line” with so many premium labels.  Winery per winery, you will get more quality wineries from this region than from any other region.

Margaret River Top Wines:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc

Each region will be described in more detail, including recommendations of specific wineries and wines in subsequent posts.  But first, onto “Part 4 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Smaller Wine Regions.”