Winemaker Notes
Vibrant in color, with generous luminous green hues. Lovely floral and apple blossom aromas grace the nose. Mouth filling flavors of key lime, green apple and lemon zest balance the racy acid backbone. These flavors linger on for quite some time, finishing the quintessential Hunter Valley Semillon to enjoy now or age gracefully.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The first 2023 tasted. Relaxed for a younger semillon, borne of the first temperate vintage in some time following a duo of cooler La Nina years. Scents of jasmine, Granny Smith slushy and spiced nashi pear. Featherweight wine. Low in alcohol. Transparent and highly regional. This will age well, as its stellar track record attests.
Sémillon has the power to create wines with considerable structure, depth and length that will improve for several decades. It is the perfect partner to the vivdly aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. Sémillon especially shines in the Bordeaux region of Sauternes, which produces some of the world’s greatest sweet wines. Somm Secret—Sémillon was so common in South Africa in the 1820s, covering 93% of the country’s vineyard area, it was simply referred to as Wyndruif, or “wine grape.”
Most admired for citrus-driven, mineral-rich and often age-worthy Semillon wines, Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s oldest wine regions and was home to its very first commercial vineyards. The region’s warm summer nights coupled with autumn cloud cover and cool sea breezes allow full ripening and healthy acidity levels for Semillon; its diverse soils of volcanic basalt and white alluvial sands promote the development of Semillon’s delicate aromas. Hunter Valley Semillons can certainly be enjoyed in their youth but with 10 to 20 years in the cellar, the best examples develop intriguing notes of honey, browned butter and roasted nuts.
Chardonnay and Shiraz also do well in Hunter Valley.