Review: Peter Lehmann Masters Margaret Semillon 2017

Amidst a sea of underwhelming recent Peter Lehmann wines, this Semillon is a beacon, with all the intensity of the good ol’ days when it consistently beat the best of the Hunter like a thief in the night. The 2017 iteration is a warm year Margaret, but that also means more stuffing. It’s still a weird wine – a seven-year-old, current release oddity, all toast, mothballs, waxed lemons, and yellow apple. It’s a non-fruity, secondary white wine, built on a heart of ripe citrus intensity. It shouldn’t work, but it does, which you could probably say about Barossa Semillon as a whole. I’m not going to pretend this is easy drinking or affable stuff, but it is high quality and long.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: good now but no hurry
• Score (out of 20): 18
• Score (out of 100): 93
• Alcohol %: 11
• RRP (in $AUD): 50
• Winery website: https://www.peterlehmannwines.com/
• Would I buy it?: a few glasses