Semillon

[Clayton_Wai-Poi]

Henschke Louis Semillon from 50 year old vines sees some oak (mostly neutral). Could be a good choice if it’s available in your neck of the woods.

[Clayton_Wai-Poi]

@Frank Drew

A good bottle from Kalin can be wonderful, though, there can be some vintage to vintage and even bottle to bottle variation.

I’ve had two older Tyrells Vat 1, both around 10 years old at the time and both well-stored; I’d always wanted to try an Aussie Semillon with some bottle age and sadly both these disappointed me. They seemed most like mass-produced Muscadets – lean, mean, somewhat dilute, no magic in the bottle for these two, unfortunately.

It’s funny, when i saw this post i was just thinking myself how a young Hunter Semillon is probably closest to a young Muscadet in terms of anywhere in the wine world. A great aged Hunter Semillon is a different beat altogether. I would argue 10 years (which you mention for the Vat 1 above) is an adolescent at best for this wine.

[Kevin_Kitagawa]

@Clayton Wai-Poi

@Frank Drew

A good bottle from Kalin can be wonderful, though, there can be some vintage to vintage and even bottle to bottle variation.

I’ve had two older Tyrells Vat 1, both around 10 years old at the time and both well-stored; I’d always wanted to try an Aussie Semillon with some bottle age and sadly both these disappointed me. They seemed most like mass-produced Muscadets – lean, mean, somewhat dilute, no magic in the bottle for these two, unfortunately.

It’s funny, when i saw this post i was just thinking myself how a young Hunter Semillon is probably closest to a young Muscadet in terms of anywhere in the wine world. A great aged Hunter Semillon is a different beat altogether. I would argue 10 years (which you mention for the Vat 1 above) is an adolescent at best for this wine.

10 years was good when Vat 1 was under cork…NOTHING like a Muscadet.

Vat 1, on release, is very lean…almost undrinkable really…and the ones with the early screwcaps that had no oxygen ingress, these seem to be aging quite slowly…The ones I’ve tried (2004, 2005) are still years away from hitting where they need to be…might even be another 10+ years…Hoping the more recent screwcaps have some adjusted oxygen ingress…I really do NOT want to wait that long…

[robert_creth]

Don’t know where the OP lives but Ahlgrens winery in the Santa Cruz mountains is selling off its cellar as the owners are retiring. They have some wonderful Semillion that go back to the 1980s. I would stick to the later 90s bottles as they less chance of being past their drinking window. Wonderful when the corks are stable. They are only open on Saturdays but I believe they will ship.