Is there a better Semillon than the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1? Possibly

There may be and I will get to that in a minute.  The 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon is considered by some to be the best Semillon ever made.  It is featured in the book 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die.  And 1999 was an iconic vintage for Hunter Valley Semillon.

I love the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon and am fortunate to have a little under a dozen left.  I also love some of the older (especially the 1992) Waverley Estate Semillon.  But let's stick with the 1999 vintage for a while.  This was a great vintage.  Meerea Park makes great wines and along with Tyrrell's and De Iuliis, are my three most favorite wineries in the Hunter Valley.  Meerea Park has the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon which is comparable to the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 in quality.  It is slightly different in style, but both are classic Hunter Valley Semillons and I have faced these two off against each other previously with split results as to which one is better.

Yesterday, I opened a bottle of the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon and what a treat that was!  While cheaper than the Alexander Munro, this is a magnificent wine with quite a different style to the Alexander Munro or the Vat 1.  It is slightly less acidic, tastes of honeyed flavored roasted nuts, caramelized pear with a touch of citrus, and could almost pass as a dessert wine (if it was sweeter still).  This would make a great wine to pair up with quiche, fritatta, or anything else with eggs.  (As if I really need a 'breakfast' wine!)

I had this wine last night with a mushroom risotto and it matched better with the risotto than the Nuits St George Burgundy which I also tried.  (I wanted to try both to compare.)  Most wine critics would recommend a Pinot Noir with a mushroom risotto, but the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon was excellent (of course, I also used 100 ml of the Terracotta Semillon in the risotto!) and matched better than the Nuits St George Burgundy at three times the price!

I tend to like my white wines dryer - as in Riesling, and more acidic and on edge - as with aged Chardonnays, but when it comes to Semillons, I find the slightly sweeter and honeyed toasted flavor to be more to my liking.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 and the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillons, but the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon has won my heart as the one to match up with a lot of different food dishes!

This is a great wine for the money and worth trying.  Check with Meerea Park or on auction sites to see if you can find some - it is well worth the money.


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

Impressing or expressing? - a good night out with the guys!

The five of us were all looking forward to a good night out.  One in the group was returning to the US after two years living in Sydney, others reflecting on completing one of the greatest banking IT projects ever run anywhere in the world, which we all touched in one way or another over the last few years, but mostly we just wanted to get together to share some companionship and some great wine.  And what a wine line-up we had!

Owen, David, Mark, Daniel, Steve

We had been planning the evening for about a month, but except for agreeing on the date, no one did any real planning at all!  So we decided to meet at the Small Bar in Crows Nest and take it from there.  Mark and I arrived first, drinking some 2012 David Hook Pinot Grigio from the Hunter Valley.  After a glass each and some nibblies, we got another full bottle as the other guys were arriving.

After some good banter, we all started showing off the wine we had brought along for the evening.  It was suppose to be a 'big red' night and it certainly turned out that way!  As I mentioned, we all apparently wanted to impress, but not in that manly competitive way of "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine!"  It was more about being respectful of each being part of a friendship and wanting to share something special with each other.  The other four in the group had been especially tight over the previous few years and I had only circled in and out a few times, so it was great to be part of the group that evening.  We all knew and enjoyed our wines and made sure we each brought a very good bottle along!

I brought along a 1996 Waverley Estates Semillon to start us off with an iconic Australian white wine which I thought would go with whatever Asian food we decided to eat that evening.  Since the evening was about the friendship and the wine, we weren't sure where we would eat (so we went to the closest place which was the Vietnamese restaurant Phuong immediately next door to the Small Bar!).  In fairness to my friend's taste and Phuong, some of the guys had been there before and it was an outstanding choice.

I felt we should start with one bottle of white wine and I wanted to test and share what I knew would be a great Australian white in the 1996 Waverley Estates Semillon.  Once we got the food ordered (Banquet Menu B, showing again how much effort we would be putting into non-wine related topics!), we got into the red wines.  The line-up was a stunner:

• 2008 Trinity Hill Homage Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend (from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand)
• 1997 Penfolds 389 Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignon blend
• 1994 Brokenwood Hermintage
• 2002 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
• 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz
• 2003 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
• 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz
• 2002 Wolf Blass Black Label Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignon / Malbec
• Some bottle of Pinot Noir that Mark bought at the bottle shop because for some reason he did not think we had enough wine for five guys!

Except for the 2002 Wolf Blass Black Label which was gifted to Andrew (the guy returning to the US), the 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz (which we deemed too young to drink), and the bottle Pinot Noir that Mark bought, we did drink all the wine with dinner.  You can tell because of how careful we were with our plates and food (and this does not show the broken glass on the floor or the mess I made of Daniel's shirt!).

Six of the reds we drank were Shiraz or Shiraz blends - that's heavy lifting for one meal!  We opened with the Trinity Hill Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend and finished with dessert and the Pinot Noir, but everything else in between was Shiraz!  I believe we all agreed that the wine of the evening was the 2002 Penfolds St Henri.  The 1997 Penfolds 389 was absolutely splendid and lasted better than I thought it would.  The 1994 Brokenwood Hermitage was a classic older Hunter Shiraz with great body and finish, but still maintaining  the elegant style of an old world Hermitage.  The 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz would have been a delight, but we passed on it as it will last another decade or more and improve with age.  And the 2003 Penfolds St Henri was another wonderful wine.  Each of these reds would usually be considered the featured wine to finish a meal with, but we had no problem over-indulging with all of them!

We then walked in the rain down to Bravo's for some gelato and other desserts where we did finish off the bottle of Pinot Noir that Mark bought before finding our individual ways home.

Great friends, great food, great times and great wine all go together.  We were not trying to impress in a competitive way - just expressing gratitude for each others friendship and respect for each others palate!  It was a rare evening where everything worked - at least it seemed so with that much good wine!

Five best wine meals ever - Part 1

I have had some great wines in my lifetime. Most have been memorable of their own accord. But the memories that last forever are when you have a line-up of great friends, great food and great wine, all which match perfectly. The memories of those times are enjoyed forever!

Over the next few weeks, I will be describing each meal, the event that warranted it, the friends involved and the wines, all which made the evening special. But the ranking to make my Top Five all-time wine drinking meals is judged on the wine itself and the wine line-up being truly great. While the friends and food added to the evening, they did not contribute to how that evening ranked - only the wine counted!

In this post, I will provide the event, and the list of wines. In subsequent posts, I will describe the friends and food that matched the wine that made those evenings special. My Top Five evenings (in reverse order) are the following:

#5 evening - My 59th birthday - November 26, 2011, at The Cut Bar & Grill

• 2005 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon
• 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay
• 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
• 1975 Lindemans Porphry

#4 evening - BPAY Architecture and Support team reunion - August 29, 2012, at The Cut Bar & Grill

• 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet
• 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
• 1990 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz blend)
• 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
• 2006 Chateau Reuissec Sauternes

#3 evening - My 58th birthday - December 2, 2010, at The Cut Bar & Grill

• Pommeray Brut Champagne NV
• 1998 Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz
• 2001 Yalumba Octavius Shiraz
• 1981 Penfolds Grange
• 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes Dessert wine
• 1997 Château D'Yquem Sauternes

#2 evening - Deanna's 41th birthday - March 17, 2012, at home with Jay Huxley Masterchef cooking

• 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
• 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling
• 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
• 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
• 2005 Chateau Brane-Cantenac (Margeaux)
• 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes
• 1997 Château D'Yquem Sauternes

#1 evening - Deanna's 40th birthday - March 19, 2011, at Lindemans Winery

• 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
• 1987 Lindemans Padthaway Watervale Riesling
• 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
• 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
• 1996 Lindemans St George Cabernet Savignon
• 1995 Yarra Yering Dry #1
• 1971 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
• 1971 Penfolds Grange
• 1971 Château D'Yquem Sauternes
• 1957 Lindemans Vintage Port

While we have had some evenings (such as our anniversaries) where the wines have been just as spectacular, they were limited to two bottles. What made the Top Five truly stand out was that we had more friends and more wines to sample, enjoy and compare.

I am actually not sure if I can write about the great time we had for Deanna's 40th birthday without passing out as just writing up the list has me quivering! I am uncertain if we will ever be able to top that evening, but my 60th birthday is coming up in a few months, so we do have a reason to try! Hopefully, I can use that night to knock off the current #5 and possibly reposition a few of the other four spots!

A magnificent Montrachet for $75 per bottle

My taste in Chardonnay has certainly changed over the years.  I used to drink and enjoy a fresh, crisp Chardonnay, and moving to Australia, I initially almost exclusively favored the Chardonnays from Margaret River (such as the Leeuwinn Estate Art Series and Pierro).  However, after trying some of the Hunter Valley Chardonnays I was amazed at how good they were and right in my own backyard!  The Two Rivers Chardonnay from the Upper Hunter is one of the best valued Chardonnays you can find.  Tamburlaine makes a very nice organic Chardonnay, but it is really the aged Chardonnays from Tyrrells and Waverley Estate that I find the most amazing.  Among the very best are the Tyrrell's 2006 Vat 47 (and almost any other vintage of the Vat 47!) and the 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay.

But then about 3 years ago, I had my first Montrachet and have never looked (or snifted) back!  It was a bottle of the 2007 La Belle Voisine Chassagne Montrachet and I picked up 18 bottles at $140 per bottle.  It is quite easy to spend $1,000 for a bottle of Montrachet if you have both the money and the inclination.  I don't!  However with the 2007 La Belle Voisine as the standard, I have tried a few Puligny Montrachets for about $75 per bottle and have been disappointed.  Then while in the US last year, we bought a bottle of the 2008 Bouchard Peres & Fils Puligny Montrachet Grand Vin De Bourgogne.  It was tremendous!

When we returned to Australia, I checked to see if we could get some of this great wine here, but found out we needed to order it from France, and there was no more 2008 to be had.  However, since 2009 was. by all claims. a better vintage anyway in Puligny, we took a chance and bought a dozen for $75 per bottle.  This bet paid off and the 2009 was even better than the 2008.  And the other reason this bet paid off is that a year later, the bottle is selling for about $175!

This wine is rich and complexity with a bit of acid and sharpness to it balanced by the flavor of sweet honey.  This is a truly outstanding wine!  I expect this wine can cellar for another 3 - 5 years, but I will not find out as I do not have the discipline to let it sit that long!  I am on my second bottle and will drink my third bottle a week from now when we have a reunion of my great project team from a previous assignment.  But tonight we are finishing off the wine with some leftover beef strogonof.

And of course as you can see from the picture, this wine will be truly enjoyed in my Riedel Montrachet glass!

The Many Faces of Semillon - Part 2: Museum-Released and Aged Semillons

In my post entitled Overview of Australia's Wine Regions - Part 3 where I described the Characteristics and Grapes of Australia's Larger Wine Regions, I extol the unique and symbiotic relationship between The Hunter Valley and the Semillon grape.
 
Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

• Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
• Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
• "Museum" Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released 

The discussion of young and medium-aged Semillons is covered in the previous post "The Many Faces of Semillon:  Part 1 - Young and Medium-Aged Semillons".  In Part 2, we will now discuss the beauty of Museum-Released and Aged Semillons.

While I like my young and medium-aged Semillons, "museum-released" and aged (10 years or older) Semillons are in a class by themselves.  The older Semillons can still have a bit of acid, but have soften considerably, and developed a complexity and balance of tastes which is ethereal in experience.  The golden color, followed by nosing such a wine (I actually use Riedel Montrachet glasses instead of the Riedel Semillon / Riesling glassware for my truly aged Semillons.  See recent post on "What's in a Glass?") and flavors in your mouth provide one of life's most precious pleasures!

I find an aged Semillon is best matched by scallops, either fried in butter, or made into a scallop boudin.  The food needs to have some richness to balance the richness of the aged Semillon.

My favorite three Museum Semillons are the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1, the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro, but top of the list is the 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon, their second vintage.  Unfortunately, there is no more to be found and I have only two bottles of the 1990 Waverley Estate left in my cellar.  However, the 1992 and 1996 Waverly Estate Semillons are magnificent also, and the 1998 and 2000 vintages are coming into their own.

I have done a tasting of the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1, the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro, and the 1999 Waverley Estate Semillons and it was difficult to pick a winner.  Each was truly outstanding in its own right.

A 10 - 20 year old Semillon can be truly magnificent.  The only problem is that there is some variability in the taste caused by difference in cork.  I had to pour a 1994 Waverley Estate down the drain because of a poor cork.  They have been good and always replaced a bad bottle for me, but is can still be a disappointment when you have had one great bottle and open a second one of the same vintage to find a small and discernible difference.  That is why I am a fan of moving from cork to screw-top.

As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say.  A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.

I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley.  There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others.  My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D'Yquem.  (See my post on "Why I think Chauteau D'Yquem is the Best Wine in the World", my most-viewed post of all time!)

The Many Faces of Semillon - Part 1: Young and Medium-Aged Semillons

In my post entitled Overview of Australia's Wine Regions - Part 3 where I described the Characteristics and Grapes of Australia's Larger Wine Regions, I extol the unique and symbiotic relationship between The Hunter Valley and the Semillon grape.
 
Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

• Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
• Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
• "Museum" Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released 

Because of the many different faces and tastes of Semillon, it has a multitude of uses.  It can be enjoyed on its own, with cheese and crackers, with Indian or Thai food, with eggs such as when serving an omelet or fritatta (one of the reasons I think of Semillon as the ultimate breakfast wine!), a Tandoori chicken pizza, or many other foods.  I also find when you need that 100 ml of white wine for cooking that Semillon fuses beautifully and enhances, but does not overpower the food with which it is blended.  My bride has a number of recipes in her great blog DAZ in the Kitchen where wine is required to cook the perfect meal.

But the real question is "Which age Semillon goes best with what type of food?"  With sharp cheeses such as a Blue Cheese or a Gorgonzola (which my bride uses when making a prawn Risotto and is outstanding!) demands a newer and crisper, more acidic Semillon.  I personally would almost always rather drink an aged or Museum-released Semillon.  However, with a sharp cheese and when a bit of acid is required, you should try a younger Semillon.  I have found two younger Semillons that in my opinion stand out (the rest are just not that interesting yet).  They are the Andrew Thomas Braemore Semillon and the Tyrrell's Johnno Semillon.

Andrew Thomas is one of finest wine makers in the Hunter Valley, if not one of the finest in the world.  And he is a really nice guy also!  I have had the pleasure of sitting next to him at a degustation affair with matching wines a few years back, and others have told me how pleasurable he was to meet and talk to when watching sport in a bar!  A great guy making great wine!

I have been surprised to to learn after buying some excellent Shiraz' such as the 1998 Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz and the 2007 Pokolbin Estate Shiraz, that Andrew was the wine maker for both of those wines.  But that is a topic for another post.  Back to Semillon.

I have had the 2009 Braemore and it is brilliant.  Crisp, a touch of acid and a bit of lemon flavor.  Many young Semillons taste flat to me, but the 2009 Braemore is ripe with flavor.

The Tyrrells' Johnno is the other young Semillon I enjoy.  I have had the 2010 and 2011 vintages and both are exceptional.  It is a bit more edgy and acidic than the Braemore in my opinion, even though Tyrrell's positions it as a smoother type of Semillon.  However, it is a most enjoyable drink when you need to pick a Semillon right from the bottle shop.

I really start to enjoy my Semillons though when they have 5 or more years in the bottle.  They become less acidic (even thought many still have a lot of acid and a lot of life in them yet!) and more complex.  Both the Thomas Braemore and the Tyrrell's Johnno Semillons are worth keeping in the bottle for a few years if you have the discipline and patience!

There are almost too many good Hunter Valley Semillons to mention here, but for me, the top class includes the Tyrrels Vat 1 (especially the 2005 vintage), The Meerea Park Alexander Munro and Meerea Park Teracotta Semillons (anywhere from the 2004 - 2006 vintages), The 2005 Brokenwood ILR (I was fortunate to pick up the last 9 bottles at the cellar door a little while back), the 2004 Lindemans Semillon and the 2004 Thomas Braemore.  I am sure I have left some great wines off this list, but I can attest the wines I mentioned within are truly outstanding medium-aged Semillons.

These "medium-aged" Semillons go really well with egg dishes.  I had about a third of a bottle of the 2004 Meerea Park Teracotta left over one Sunday morning and heated up some leftover quiche for a late breakfast at about 11 am and a glass of the Semillon to go with it.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  Since I rarely drink in the morning, my bride and I now look for reasons to make egg dishes (such as a Salmon Fritatta or Quiche Lorraine) so we have the excuse to drink a medium-aged Semillon with dinner!  I also like my medium-aged Semillons with Indian and Thai food.

As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say.  A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.

I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley.  There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others.  My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D'Yquem.  (See my post on "Why I think Chauteau D'Yquem is the Best Wine in the World", my most-viewed post of all time!)