Bremerton Verdelho 2008

Bremerton Verdelho 2008 (Langhorne Creek, SA)
Screwcap, $20

According to Bremerton, Verdelho is the white wine star of Langhorne Creek, and based on this bottle I can’t agree more – this is a delicious fresh white of real structure and such lovely fruit richness. So I pose the question? Is Verdelho to Langhorne Creek like Riesling is to the Clare Valley, or Semillon is to the Hunter?…

Watery green in colour, this opens with an aromatic peachy nose that fairly leaps out of the glass – the sort of wine that you can smell the open bottle from the other side of the desk, enticing with its olfactory delights. Its a bright, peachy, ripe pear, mango & lemon-lime cordial saturated nose that is full and nose filling. It smells like spring blossoms & freshly prepared tropical fruit salad.

(Speaking of Verdelho, Rhys Eather [winemaker at Meerea Park] told me recently that he thought that 2008 was the best vintage he had ever seen for Hunter Valley Verdelho, that Verdelho had performed the best of any grape in the wet and cold 2008 Hunter vintage).

The palate follows the nose perfectly – fruit salad with mango, really ripe pear (at the point when the pear goes very soft and dents easily), melons and grapefruit. At first it seems impossibly rich and bound to fall away into flab, but by mid palate it tightens up again with crisp acidity jutting in on the back palate. Finally, there is some really welcome phenolic grip on the tail that gives the wine some tangibility.

I can’t remember the last time I tasted such an enjoyable Verdelho. 18.5