1996 Lindeman's Sémillon Bin 8850

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 91.7 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Delectable Blue's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/26/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Bottle 3 - The cork had deteriorated badly with this bottle and the base of the cork remained in the bottle. I had to decant and the filter out the residual cork detritus. With this bottle the wine is beautiful and soft, with only the slightest hint of residual acidity. The flavours are also less intense, but quite complex. The honeyed flavours predominating over a spectrum of secondary floral highlights.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Delectable Blue's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/30/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Bottle 2 - I was worried that this one may have spoiled, as it suffered some serious cork leakage. It seems my fears were unfounded. Bottle 2 was even better than bottle 1. The colour is darker, with an intense honeyed colour. The honey and toast flavours are also more intense. The beeswax and minerality of bottle 1 makes way for ripe fig flavours, and exquisitely complex (positive) oxidative ageing characteristics followed by the most insane length of finish. The complex flavours linger for many minutes after finishing the wine.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Delectable Blue's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/23/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 92 Points

  I love Hunter Valley semillon, and I really love aged Hunter Valley semillon, especially after they reach that magical 20 year mark. I was lucky enough to pick up a handful of these babies at a Grays auction. Unfortunately they delivered them in 40 degree heat yesterday and by the time I got into air-conditioned comfort, three of the bottles had started leaking wine due to heat expansion. Thankfully after removing the capsules, all the corks appear to be in excellent condition. So it was just the transient delivery heat that caused the leaks. Oh well, I’ll just have to drink them before they spoil.
  
  So to the spoils. Bottle 1 - All the elements are there, they are just taking some time to coax out of the wine - aged wine can be so contrary. I don’t like decanting aged wines as they can turn so quickly. After 15-20 minutes in the glass the wine really opened up beautifully. The nose is a delight, the lemon and herb aromas of youth are giving over to those aged toasty honeyed flavours so typical of the region. The palate follows suit, there are still mouthfuls of zesty lemon along with a vein of minerality, and a hint of beeswax. Those complex aged flavours keep pushing on long after the finish. Superb!
  
  The good news is the wine still has great structure and acid balance and would probably last another decade if that last cork holds out.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.