Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 2000 (Hunter, NSW)
$40, Cork (which snapped in half), 11.1%
Winery Website
The most curious thing about this wine comes from the back label, which announces ‘excellent drinking now and through until at least 2008’. That’s mighty conservative for Tyrrells, whose 98 vintage Vat 1 is still accumulating silverware on the show circuit. Erring on the side of caution?
Regardless of what the label says, this is still developing. Yellow, green yellow in colour the nose is a little shy, with lanolin, citrus and yellow apples, leading to a palate that is just beginning to get the lactic, ‘are you sure there’s no oak in here’ richness of older Hunter Sems. Behind that there is a dry, green apple dryness and pithy, lingering acidity that is all so very Vat 1 in its intensity.
It’s a wine in progress, this Semillon, with the first flesh of age injecting some roundness to the mid palate, yet without taming the crisp ‘I am still green’ fruit flavours. It’s only an average Vat 1, with a little ill defined soapiness on the palate, yet when viewed as a white wine, when placed up against the sweet Sauvs and insipid Pinot Gris that flood the Australian wine market, this presents as a very drinkable, exceedingly well structured drop. 17+
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