TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

The place on the web to chat about wine, Australian wines, or any other wines for that matter
Post Reply
User avatar
Waiters Friend
Posts: 2775
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 4:09 am
Location: Perth WA

TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

Post by Waiters Friend »

This is Tahbilk's flagship white, made from arguably the oldest Marsanne vines in the world. It's also the current release - these wines are held back for 5-6 years prior to hitting the market. The back label claims there will be additional complexity with another 25 to 30 years in the bottle, but I doubt I will see that personally.

Very pale yellow in colour, and this contrasts with the darker 2013 vintage. The standard 2014 Marsanne is also considerably darker than this wine. Why?

The nose has lime/lemon, honeysuckle, pear and a little ginger. It's yet to show much sign of bottle development at all. The palate is light and fresh, with only a hint of the viscosity to come with development. There's high acid, fresh lemon juice, and the faintest touch of honey. There's a good line of flavour on the finish.

Unlike the 2013, tasted a year ago (http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 13#p159454) which I think might be an anomaly, this is totally youthful and yet to show its potential. I would need to leave these for another 5 years, I reckon, and then may find they need another 5. Maybe they will still be sound in 25 years - however, I may not be!

Cheers
Allan
Wine, women and song. Ideally, you can experience all three at once.

User avatar
cuttlefish
Posts: 1014
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 1:46 pm
Location: Sunbury

Re: TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

Post by cuttlefish »

It's a good point you raise, Allan, about the considerable colour differences in developing bottles of Tahbilk marsanne. I've wondered about this myself. Two different vintages a year apart looking vastly different in colour at, say, 5-15 years of age. It doesn't necessarily reflect their cellarability, or their freshness, for that matter, but the colour difference along their development is intruiging.
Smack my [insert grape type here] up !

User avatar
Waiters Friend
Posts: 2775
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 4:09 am
Location: Perth WA

Re: TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

Post by Waiters Friend »

Hello

This has picked up a little development in the past 18 months. While the 2013 is still much darker, this has attained a light golden hue, while still being bright in the glass. I still have one bottle remaining of the 2014 'standard' Marsanne, and this is considerably darker (and will be drunk soon).

Lemon / lime has dissipated somewhat, and there's more honeyed development in its place (but only a little of it). This means the nose is fairly muted, and I wonder if the wine is in a dumb ohase or crossover point. The palate, however, is starting to show more richness and palate weight, with more honeysuckle and lanolin. The extra richness shows in apparent viscosity as well.

The palate is currently far more interesting than the nose - however, I expect the nose to gain some richness in coming years as well, and balance out again.

Cheers
Allan
Wine, women and song. Ideally, you can experience all three at once.

User avatar
Waiters Friend
Posts: 2775
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 4:09 am
Location: Perth WA

Re: TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

Post by Waiters Friend »

Hello

This has picked up a little development in the past 18 months. While the 2013 is still much darker, this has attained a light golden hue, while still being bright in the glass. I still have one bottle remaining of the 2014 'standard' Marsanne, and this is considerably darker (and will be drunk soon).

Lemon / lime has dissipated somewhat, and there's more honeyed development in its place (but only a little of it). This means the nose is fairly muted, and I wonder if the wine is in a dumb ohase or crossover point. The palate, however, is starting to show more richness and palate weight, with more honeysuckle and lanolin. The extra richness shows in apparent viscosity as well.

The palate is currently far more interesting than the nose - however, I expect the nose to gain some richness in coming years as well, and balance out again.

Cheers
Allan
Wine, women and song. Ideally, you can experience all three at once.

User avatar
rens
Posts: 1425
Joined: Thu May 14, 2009 7:52 pm

Re: TN: Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2014

Post by rens »

I have a few 2007's of this and it is a fresh as the day it was bottled. There is no way you would pick it as 15 years old. it will be drinking just fine at 30 years I recon..
I pinched this from cellar tracker (Tasted 2017) and it is bang on with what I found:

Aromatic nose - strongly reductive with some struck match, crushed rock, and a hint of herbaceous, almost marijuana-like floral notes. There's also a savory verbena character that's hard to put a finger on. It's reductive and tight, but showing just a tiny hint of development (faint sweet honeyed citrus, slight wilted apple, toast). The nose shows hints of a beautiful development to come, if it goes anywhere near the Hunter Semillon route.

On the palate, dry, medium minus body, slightly diminished alcohol - feels 11.5% (actually 10.5%!), high (+) acid - tart and malic, with a hint of tart apple cider vinegar notes. The finish doesn't have any of the bitterness I normally associate with Marsanne, and instead resembles a young Hunter Semillon, albeit with a touch more weight.

This is aggressively lean and taut right now. No idea how it will develop. Fascinating to taste!
never underestimate the predictability of stupidity

Post Reply