Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This delivers intense, fresh and pure lemon aromas with some minerally edges and light florals. The palate has a very fine and bright feel with a core of lemon-curd flavor. Streamlined and elegant. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a whiff of flint on a sleek, juicy frame, with pear, pomelo and lemon zest details and a hint of celery seed, making for an appealing mix of savory and fresh fruit flavors. Shows terrific intensity.
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.