Find the Semillon
Find the Pinot Noir
There's far too much fatality about. Notably and most recently in the world of wine there has been beloved British wine merchant Bill Baker and the later Hunter Valley winemaker Trevor Drayton who died recently as a result of tragic accidental explosion at his Drayton's Family Wines. Here's a wine to honour the latter. (The former would probably find it a bit too weak for his robust tastes.)
Glenguin, Old Broke Block Semillon 2005 Hunter Valley is a lemon and lime flavoured beauty that is particulary interesting to UK wine buyers because it will be reduced from £8.21 to £5.49 in Bibendum's February sale - definitely worth snapping up at this price. Hunter Valley Semillon is one of Australia's classic wine styles and is both low in alcohol (12%) and amazingly age-proof. The traditional masterpiece examples were the old Lindemans bottlings which were variously labelled Hunter River Riesling, Hunter River Chablis and Hunter River White Burgundy accordin got some percevied variation in style when they were young, which tended to blur in toasty old age.
This particular wine is made by Master of Wine Robin Tedder from vines grown on sandy loam over red basalt with yields averaging 2.5 tonnes per acre in this very dry, late-picked year. (The Hunter's problems are usually related to the arrival of heavy rain before the grapes are fully ripe.) Only free run juice was fermented to near dryness in steel before stabilization. The wine was then left on lees to develop flavour for six months prior to bottling. There's a little, 5 %, of the local Verdelho blended in to add even more intrigue.
If you find any Hunter Semillon, give it a go. It has a figgy, citrus charcter unlike any other wine and the volcanic nature of the soil can sometimes manifest itself, especially with age, as a sort of minerally twang on the palate.
Another good buy in the Bibendum sale is De Loach Pinot Noir 2005 Russian River Valley, reduced from £11.27 to £6.99. This is juicy, quite thick, assertive fleshy Pinot in full-throttle California style but has enough freshness to stop it falling over its 14.5% alcohol. This wine is made in vast quantity and is widely available in the US at around £15 so the UK reduction really just brings it in line with American prices, but we see so few California bargains on this side of the Atlantic, even in this era of the depressed dollar, that this is most welcome.
Bibendum's sale runs Feb 5-15 but advance copies of catalogues are available from sales@bibendum-wine.co.uk from the day after tomorrow.
Find the Semillon
Find the Pinot Noir