Expert’s choice: Hunter Valley Semillon Daniel Honan
Graceful, elegant and unique, Hunter Valley Semillon is responsible for some of the most distinctive dry white wines in the world. Low alcohol, refreshing, zesty and crisp, the wines brim with bright acidity and tart to sweet citrus fruits in youth. Texturally they are often lean, sometimes with a talc-like mouthfeel, becoming softer, richer and waxier with age. Occasionally, flavours of toast and honey may emerge, as well as nougat and nuts in wines with bottle age.
The Hunter Valley’s Semillons demonstrate their sense of place fluently, naturally and intrinsically. Indeed, Semillon producers in Australia’s other key winemaking regions could only hope to emulate their majesty.
In South Australia, those of the Barossa are usually richer, riper and fuller-bodied. There have been occasions where the Clare Valley has come close, but producers there know better than to attempt to replicate the success they’ve enjoyed with their Rieslings. In the Adelaide Hills, as well as in Western Australia’s Great Southern, a few
notable winemakers have made Semillon their obsession, exploring the grape’s hidden depths through extended skin and lees contact, which some winemakers of the Hunter are trialling (see Usher Tinkler and Hungerford Hill, below), but not to the same level.
France, of course, grows more Semillon than any other country. In Bordeaux it is picked much riper, and usually blended with Sauvignon Blanc, to alleviate its high acid attack, creating sublime dry white Graves and Pessac-Léognan. Additionally, the grapes are left to nobly rot, creating (with or without Sauvignon Blanc) those magnificent Sauternes and Barsac sweet wines.
Back in the Hunter, Semillon is the lone hero. It remains the region’s iconic saviour, even after almost two centuries of wine-growing. In recent times, single-vineyard wines have been evolving and expanding the understanding of Semillon as it relates to its unique Hunter Valley wine-growing environment.
The region’s key Semillon terroir is a gentle arc, or ‘dress circle’, of sandy, alluvial, free-draining sites at the western end of Pokolbin, running in parallel along Hermitage Road, between Broke Road and Deasys Road. Here, Hunter Semillon’s reputation for finesse, line and length is most conspicuous. Noted examples from Andrew Thomas, Keith Tulloch, Brokenwood, Silkman and Pepper Tree originate from here. The vine provenance of Tyrrell’s top cuvées can also be traced back to within close proximity of this arc, although arguably they are now growing on even more lauded single-vineyard sites. The same can also be said for Mount Pleasant’s sandy Lovedale vineyard, beneath and further east of the arc.
The following 18 wines were the highest scoring of more than 100 Semillons tasted (non-blind) from the 2017, 2018 and 2019 vintages. Many of these vintages have not yet been exported, so contact UK importers or specialist Australian merchants for details.
Daniel Honan is a freelance food and drinks writer based in the Hunter Valley