Semillon

Hello,
Today is all about Semillon. This variety is found all Australia but especially in the Hunter Valley, Baross, Queensland, and Riverina in New South Wales. These grapes grow in compact bunches with thins skins. This makes it asker for these bunches to get a disease.  The color of Semillon is pale straw but can turn into a rich gold with age. It tends to have green bean, pea pod, hay, citrus, lemon, apple and tropical fruit aromas. The way it interacts with the palate can actually vary between regions. Those made to drink right away tend to have more tropical flavors and attack the mid palate but the drier styles tend to have lingering citrus with more acidity.

In class we tasted two Semillon

1) Mount Pleasant Elizabeth (2015)
    Made in: Hunter Valley
    Alc/vol: 10
    Price: $14

Appearance: The core contains a pale pale straw yellow color and the rim is a light golden yellow. There are some green hues making it seem like a young wine. The body of the wine seems to be light and the wine has great clarity and vibrancy. It also appears to be light bodied and have no oak content.

Aroma: This wine contains a mixture of aromas including hay, cut grass, lime/lemons but it is a delicate balance b between these.

Palate: The wine is very light and the intensity starts off slow in the front palate and then build in the mid palate and then drops again on the back palate. There is a faint taste of tropical fruit in wine with the acidity.


2) Mountain Valley Blue label (2007)
    Made in: Hunter valley
    Alc/vol: 11
    Price: $22

Appearance: The Rim is a golden yellow color where the body is a pale golden yellow. This wine seems to be full bodied. The color shows that this is aged or has had oak contact. It is a full bodied wine  and it is clear and vibrant.

Aroma: The smell shows that there is no oak contact. It smells heavy of petroleum, asparagus, and buttered toast.

Palate: This wine is very heavy on the tongue and is very rich. It also have a buttery aftertaste. The flavors are not in the front palate, the start to build in mid palate and then keep building to back palate where then it drops quickly.


Thank you
~Karli