Hunter Valley 10.9% Screwcap $45 Source: Sample
Still quite tight at seven years of age, but it does open up a bit with time in the glass. Lots of visible spritz and not much colour development yet. The expected waxed lemons and fresh limes with lanolin developing alongside some buttered toast.
Orange rind and a smattering of herbs (mostly thyme), particularly on the back palate. Excellent focal acidity. There remains a touch of hay and an (auto)suggestion of honey, probably more akin to dried out beeswax.
Enjoyable enough to drink now but clearly has a long and prosperous life ahead of it…especially now that it’s under screwcap, not cork as the image may suggest. I’ll be holding off for another 5 years before I look at it again.
Winery website- http://www.tyrrells.com.au/
Interesting. My bottle of this looked rather awkward, wacked with sulphur on the nose and a with a disjointed and plain weird palate. Didnt get to see how it looked after being open for a while, which is a shame for I'm particularlly intrigued to see whether said sulphur blew off.
Good to see you got a good bottle though JP.
On opening there certainly was a fair amount of sulphur AG…but my bottle did shed most of it it on the night & was even better the next day. Even with a good bottle, it's a tough one for me – do you include that in your note?
I guess, as my sample came good and I'm advising leaving it alone a little while, I chose to leave it out. That and the fact that I am an advocate for the wine and fear misinterpretation when writing about such matters. Perhaps it would have been worthwhile to add a sentence recommending that, currently, it be given a fair bit of air before serving.
Once again, it raises a fascinating conundrum when it comes to writing about wine. What we leave out seems just as important as what we include. Decisions abound…