2001 Tyrrell's Sémillon Vat 1

Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 92.5 points

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  9/12/2020 - Nicthebuilder wrote: flawed

  oxidised, cork crumbled. Luck of the draw with this wine and vintage. hoping for better luck with the next one.

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  1/23/2020 - Geoff7777 wrote:

  Under cork so expectations are muted. Pop and wow. Pale lemon in color and there’s some gas in the bottle. The wine is a baby. Subdued nose at first with hay, grass and citrus. The lime is missing...has the cork stripped the top notes away from the fruit? The palate is chalky, faint honey lurking in the background. Suspect this needs a splash decant. 20 minutes later and the kaffir lime is starting to appear, together with a citrus twang to the finish. A youthful bottle with time in hand, if you feel like risking the cork.

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  9/22/2019 - grapenomad wrote: 95 Points

  Semillon - the sommelier's grape - one would joke. When found on a list together with 'well-established' grapes like Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, Semillon doesn't really get the credit it deserves. In the Old World, it's most commonly associated with the rich sweet wines of Sauternes or Barsac. In the New World, Tyrrell's covers all the basis for reputable monovarietal dry whites made from this grape. The icon going by the name Vat 1 spends a short time on gross lees after the fermentation and is rested for only 5 months before being bottled early to maintain its freshness. No oak fermentation or maturation is used.
  
  Chablis-esque (god, I love these -esque phrases) lemon gold in the glass. Rich complexity immediately detected on the nose - aromas of lime juice, lemon pie, rock melon, toast and whiffs of reduction (gunpowder) that blow off quickly. A bloody brilliant old-school Aussie white. Rich with fruit, but super lean and unbelievably fresh for its age. I can't even wrap my head around how youthful this still is. This is why you need to age Vat 1: it can be so low-key, restrained, austere and even underwhelming in its youth, but after more than 10 years in a cellar it starts to open up, becoming more expressive and complex, and softening up - yet retaining its firm acidic backbone. An outstanding display.

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  9/14/2018 - rmarkey Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Excellent, aged but still very fresh. 10% alc.
  Colour: lemon
  Bouquet: lemon, slightly smokey, notes of honey
  Palate: lemon, subtle notes of honey, very sharp and clean, great acid and length, somewhat creamy. Gorgeous wine.
  September 2018

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  3/12/2017 - rmarkey Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Excellent, really belying its age. 10% alc. very low, but this is not evident.
  Colour: very pale straw yellow.
  Bouquet: lemon and lemon butter, flinty touch of gunpowder, rockmelon
  Palate: lemon and lemon curd, graphite, lemon pie, slightly spritzy, very sharp but also creamy texture, mineral, quite acidic still, long very clean finish, with primary fruit intact and dominant.
  March 2017

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