Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
From early promise, to calamities, to a dry tail saving the vintage, 2016 was peripatetic. Yet here, at this most reliable address, very good across the suite of whites. Planted in 1908 on sand. Crushed with 50% stems intact, as is the wont here. The HVD is the more phenolic of Tyrell's 3 single-vineyard semillons. De rigeur flavour intensity. Talc, bath salts and pumice. Lemon rind to grapefruit scents, too. A forceful finish marked by a generosity of extract and a gentle pucker. This will age very well.
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Wine Spectator
Packs preserved lemon notes, with yuzu and white flower aromatics that are vibrant and intense, leaning into dried herb, beeswax and mineral accents. Firm, appealing finish. Drink now. 2,500 cases made, 35 cases imported.
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.