Recent weeks have provided me with the opportunity to re-evaluate two wines that I am confident will one day take their place amongst Australia’s finest. They haven’t been around for especially long, so these tastings were virtually complete verticals. Each shows the steady, classic evolution that takes an established marriage between a region and a variety, before transforming it into something both distinctive and individual. McWilliams Limited Release Botrytis Semillon Jim Brayne and his team at Hanwood had been experimenting with late-harvested Griffith semillon for several years before the release of the first wine under this label, from the 1996 vintage. The brief they set themselves was to create a more savoury, long and complex dessert style that was less marmalade-like and cloying than several others from this region. I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen to date, and am now happy to rate this wine alongside De Bortoli’s Noble One. It has more fineness and complexity than other similar wines, with the sort of honeycomb and brioche qualities more commonly found in Sauternes than Australian dessert wines. It only needs a few more top scores for a 1 rating in The OnWine Australian Wine Annual. McWilliam’s Riverina Botrytis Semillon 2000 ($25 retail, approx., 375 ml) 18.0 Slightly cooked aromas of burned caramel and marmalade with hints of honeysuckle, lemon rind, apricot, melon and honeycomb precede a luscious, forward and generous palate. Its round, juicy texture finishes fractionally short and soft with savoury influences of oak and tightly bound sulphide. Generous and approachable, not excessively sweet, but could use a little more freshness. Drink 2002-2005+. McWilliam’s Riverina Botrytis Semillon 1999 18.9 Superbly elegant and vibrant fruit-driven dessert wine scented with peaches, citrus and melon, with deftly handled lightly dusty, spicy vanilla oak. There’s also a whiff of honey, paw paw and other tropical fruit. Fresh and youthful, it’s long, juicy and racy, with piercing tropical fruit bound by citrusy acids, finishing long, savoury and refreshing. Drink 2004-2007. McWilliam’s Riverina Botrytis Semillon 1998 18.7 A powerful, deeply flavoured and lavishly proportioned dessert wine whose spectrum of complex spicy, floral and citrusy aromas reveals a suggestion of honey, brioche and buttered toast. Concentrated and voluptuous, with tremendous length and depth, it’s also clean and refreshing, revealing an exquisite balance of acidity and oak. Drink 2003-2006. McWilliam’s Riverina Botrytis Semillon 1997 17.9 With just a hint of varnish, this is a more oaky expression of this wine, with citrusy, toasty aromas of prunes, pastry and sweet oak. Now developing bottle-aged complexity, it’s luscious and forward, with vibrant but restrained fruit qualities and a refreshing balance between sugars and acids. Finishes clean, buttery and savoury, with just a hint of oak at the end of the palate. Drink 2002-2005. McWilliam’s Riverina Botrytis Semillon 1996 16.6 Despite its complex developed and citrusy aromas of caramel brioche, honey, toast, melon and figs, the palate is now drying out at the finish, appearing rather flat and oaky, perhaps lacking length of fruit and freshness. Was a much better wine in its day, or this might have been an advanced bottle. Drink 1998-2001 Saltram No. 1 Shiraz Saltram’s No.1 Shiraz represents the company’s greatest winemaking achievement in recent years and is a fitting evolutionary outcome to its earlier Pinnacle brand. It’s made by Nigel Dolan, one of the best winemakers in any large Australian wine company, from a handful old Barossa shiraz vineyards at the northern end of the valley floor, plus a couple at the Moculta end of the Eden Valley. The wine steers a sensible course between the best of the modern era in terms of fruit expression and intelligent use of oak, plus the best of the old, with respect to its small yields of ripe but not over-ripe fruit. All the No. 1s have been fermented to dryness in open eight-tonne fermenters to ease back the extraction of hard tannins. They are matured in an increasingly significant proportion of French oak casks, which reached 50% from 1998 onwards. Dolan has also backed off the pedal with new oak. He’s reduced its use from 100% by introducing a combination of one year-old ex chardonnay casks and two year-old dry red casks to account for as much as 30% of the wine. The results are seen in No. 1 Shirazes whose oak doesn’t choke back their fruit, which remains bright and relatively uncluttered. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 2000 17.2 There’s a slightly cooked, spicy, meaty quality about this wine’s sweet, ripe and smoky aroma of violets, cassis, mulberries and raspberries. There’s also a hint of licorice and a generous serve of vanilla oak. Forward and intensely flavoured, the richly endowed palate is steeped in slightly meaty cassis and plum-like fruit and cloaked in assertive smoky cedar/vanilla oak. Slightly cooked and uncomplicated but finely crafted, it’s a worthy red from a difficult vintage. Drink 2005-2008+. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1999 18.5 Stylish, smooth and elegant shiraz with piercing aromas of violets, small black and red berries, restrained cedar/vanilla oak and hints of mocha. It’s restrained and supple, bursting with jujube-like cassis and raspberries, enhanced with plush, creamy and chocolate oak and bound by fine, tight-knit tannins. Lightly minty, with lingering hints of spice and licorice. Drink 2007-2011+. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1998 ($45 retail, approx.) 19.1 A modern classic, looking better every time I taste it. Deeply perfumed, smoky floral aromas of violets, cassis and chocolate/mocha/vanilla oak are fresh and penetrative. Plush and concentrated with pristine, vibrant dark berry and plum fruit, it’s superbly structured and balanced around firm, fine tannins and excellent new oak. Stylish and complete; neither over-ripe nor blocky. Drink 2010-2018. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1997 16.6 Rather a chunky and meaty, herbal and greenish reflection of a difficult season. Wild, earthy cooked meat aromas are over-ripe and under-ripe, while the palate is forward, firm and astringent, but becomes thin, hollow and herbaceous. Drink 2005-2009. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1996 18.4 Restrained meaty, lightly herbal and chocolatey aromas of dark red and black berries with new vanilla oak influences before a long, smooth and luxuriant palate whose minty flavours of concentrated small blackberry and plum fruit are wrapped in velvet tannins. Finely balanced and still very youthful, with ages ahead. Drink 2008-2016. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1995 18.2 Slightly jammy aromas of raspberries, cassis and red cherries are lifted by scents of cloves, fennel and violets. Plush and creamy, generously endowed with sweet oak, it’s steeped in intense flavours of small ripe fruits and licorice, although it hasn’t exceptional length. Beginning to show the results of bottle-age. Drink 2003-2007+. Saltram No. 1 Shiraz 1994 18.2 Smooth, maturing Barossa red whose restrained flavours of sweet red berries, plums and cassis are delivered with a ripe, fleshy palate whose creamy coconut oak qualities are enhanced by fine-grained tannins. Drink 2002-2006.
