Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon 2004
$40ish, Screwcap, 10.9%
Source: Cellar
www.tyrrells.com.au

I’ve always found the 04 Hunter Sems to be an odd bunch, much like the 08’s actually, with wines thatvary from pure glory (like the 2004 Meerea Parks, highlights of a past Sydney wine show tasting)  to plain odd. This sits somewhere in the middle, though it’s also far too young for real drinking pleasure. Or at least I think so.

Green straw yellow in colour (like all of em’ really), this has some goats cheesiness on the nose that suggests cool year in the Hunter. Cool year or rain. Though probably rain (I think harvest time rain from memory). Whatever, it’s a cheesy aroma that I always pick up in cool/rainy years, and I can smell it here. It’s not a turn off per se, it’s just distinctive, and at least it’s communicative (vintage variation can be fun after all).

Underneath the hint of cheese however, and extending through the palate, is actually a much more typical Semillon beast, full of lemon, green apple and obligatory toast, the toast giving generosity to what is a rather tart and quite lean mouthful of juice. It’s a palate of jaunty angles and tart edges, with bottle age the real saving grace for the drinkability.

An edgy teenager of a wine, this just needs a few years in a dodgy London bar pulling pints for £3 an hour and getting smashed every night (to soften out) and it should be fine.

A good, but probably not great, Vat 1. 17.8/92