The 2006 Single Vineyard Semillon ($20) is the first Semillon Wandin Valley has produced from a single parcel of fruit. Each year we harvest our Semillon vineyards at varying sugar levels to produce a more complete wine with a fuller flavour spectrum. In 2006 one block of fruit from a vineyard on Oaky Creek Rd in Pokolbin showed unique varietal expression and great flavour. We decided to pick this vineyard later than the others and to not adjust the acid pre-ferment. This meant that the resulting wine, with its higher alcohol (11.0%) and lower acid (6.0 g/L), proved to be eminently drinkable. Considering those consumers that find the more traditional guise of young Hunter Semillon too challenging we decided to release the wine six months later than usual to really enhance its overall appeal. Without resorting to obvious sugar additions to soften the palate, we are hoping this style of wine will show another side to the Semillon grape, and encourage less educated wine consumers to experience the virtues of this fantastic variety and perhaps move on to our blended Reserve Semillon which fits the more traditional mold of Hunter Valley Semillon.

The final days of 2006 saw the release of two new Reserve Sparkling wines; the 2004 Orange Pinot Noir / Chardonnay ($45), and the estate grown 2004 Sparkling Malbec ($30). The Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were sourced from a mature high altitude vineyard in Orange, NSW. The fruit was hand picked and whole bunch pressed prior to a cool, slow fermentation. The wine was then tiraged late in 2004 and then left on yeast lees in the bottle for a little over 24 months.

The Malbec was hand picked at 12.5 Baumé and fermented in open tanks. The wine was matured in a mixture of one and two year old French oak barriques for 12 months before tirage. After the bottle fermentation the wine was then left to rest on its’ lees for almost 24 months. For the Malbec we are trialling a crown seal closure; this is as much for market response as for technical effect.

I feel that the generous maturation time on yeast lees has given both these wines greater levels of complexity and texture. I have kept the wines quite dry relative to the market (4 g/L residual sugar in the Pinot Chardonnay and 10 g/L in the Malbec) in an attempt to highlight the quality of our fruit and to emphasise the effects of the extended maturation time. We are only disgorging 150 cases at a time, and trying to stagger the release of the remainder of the wines as much as demand will allow.