Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull 36 Bottles: Q1, 2/10/2019

  (Tyrrell's Semillon Hunter Valley) Hello friends. Once each quarter this year, we’ll be offering wines from 36 Bottles of Wine, my book that was released last September. We’re going to try to assemble all nine wines from the three months in question, but it won’t always be easy; some categories are only available during certain times of the year. My overarching goal is that we’ve offered all 36 wines at least once by the end of 2019. Also, if you read the book over the holidays and enjoyed it, please consider writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It’ll help other like-minded folks discover the title. Thank you! Now, onto the wines (and book). We’ve managed to source eight of the nine wines from Jan/Feb/Mar. The only exception is Grignan-les-Adhemar, which is a category we’ve had success offering in the past. I’ll continue looking for a bottle of Grignan, and in the meantime, I hope those of you who purchased the book will enjoy following along. [Excerpts from the book will be in italics. Copyright 2018 By Paul Zitarelli. All rights reserved. Excerpted from 36 Bottles of Wine by permission of Sasquatch Books.]March white: Hunter Valley Semillon. Hunter Valley Sémillon makes no sense. It’s a freak. Like Purple Rain–era Prince freaky. Take Sémillon, a white grape notoriously low in natural acidity. Plant it in a scorching-hot valley north of Sydney. Warm regions generally produce super-ripe grapes: high sugars, low acids. You’d expect the wine to be a hot, flabby mess: some 15-percent-alcohol booze-monster entirely lacking in energy and charm. What you get is the opposite: a brisk beauty that dazzles in its youth and gathers nuance and complexity with age.

RJonWine.com

• By Richard Jennings
  2/8/2017 (link) 92 points

  (Tyrrell's Sémillon) Very light yellow color; savory, chalk, green apple, pear nose; tasty, complex, green apple, mineral, lime palate with near medium acidity; medium-plus finish