"The 2015 vintage exhibits all of that medal-winning capacity to age. When I first tasted it three years ago, I described it as an ugly duckling. Sure enough, the beautiful swan is now emerging, and when I tasted it again this month it is ascendant: honeyed, citric and pithy with the bizarre but irresistible woodsmoke and beeswax complexity that develops with bottle age.
Beyond that ageability and the deliciousness that comes with it, Hunter Valley Semillon has two more qualities to recommend it. The first is its unusually low alcohol. The second is its heritage as a style that is original to Australia.
...But as Vat 1 demonstrates, something remarkable happens to the wine as it ages. Accordingly, this particular flagship of Semillon is not released until it reaches five years of age, and even then it is in its infancy. When Tim Jackson reviewed the 2015, he noted that fourth-generation Bruce Tyrrell (as pictured in the main photo above) thinks the wine is best at five years or 10–12 years. For me, right now, this vintage is showing the first glimpses of what is to come: when ascendance becomes transcendence." - Jancis Robinson
Sustainably-made
