Mcwilliams Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2010 (Hunter Valley, NSW)
11.5%alc, Screwcap, $20 (or much less on special)
Source: Sample
www.mcwilliams.com.au
I’m not sure what the strategy is here exactly, but ‘Lizzy’ now comes out as a young wine, with this Semillon already out in the marketplace. I’m guessing it helps the cashflow (releasing it early) but, in terms of drinking pleasure, it’s a backward move, for this doesn’t taste anything like the classic trophy winners that the label is renowned for (though that might just be the vintage).
In the glass this Semillon is green and light, looking every bit the current vintage white wine that it is. It smells of green fruit, a splash of citrus and then some honeyed generosity. Warm year wine. The qualm, for mine, is the palate, which just doesn’t quite have the drive or the acid structure that you would expect for a young Lizzy. It’s broadish and slightly rounded stuff, a wine built in the low alcohol Hunter Semillon mould, but without quite enough length or heart to be convincing.
All in all it’s still a fair wine, still refreshing and still drinkable, but it just seems a bit lacking. Could the normal 4 years of bottle age have sorted it out into something good? Maybe. Is it a top Lizzy? No. 16.7/89
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