2009 Flaxman Dessert Semillon

Peter Caton ( http://url2it.com/bind ) is the artist behind the labels for these Flaxman wines and I must say I like them very much. Kind of like far better versions of the glass of wine featured on Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh’s “Big Red Wine Book”. Maybe they could look into him for the 2010/11 edition

Most of the bottles come with a little story as to the wine’s origins on the back label, although this bottle informs me that “There is no story here”. I don’t know about that! Dry grown fruit made in a cordon cut style with 70% of the fruit dried on the vine and the remaining percentage fresh fruit from below the cut. Hand picked off vines of at least 45 years of age as well. Sounds like a story to me…

A quick confession. I am inclined towards thinking that many in wine valorise Botrytis style dessert wines overly much. Nothing against the good old noble rot. It’s just that I love a well made late harvest or cordon cut style. They seem fresher and more cleansing to me and this one is no exception. At 90 gpl residual sugar this isn’t as heavy a finish to a dinner as some the nobles which stack up around 200 grams per litre.

Yellow golden hue with aromas of apricots, oranges, orange zest, light marmalade and some honeyed lemon. The palate follows the nose in due course with a lovely line of acidity preventing the wine from becoming too heavy or cloying. There is a bit of paw paw in there somewhere as well. A dessert wine of subtle intensity then and one that worked a treat with bread and butter pudding, though I may need to go for a long walk today despite the restrained residual sugar level. Well, it was worth it!

Winery Website- http://flaxmanwines.com.au/