"Semi-long"

[sjw_11]

I just came across this article in the UK press and thought it may amuse people...

Wine: is the Hunter Valley finally coming out of the doldrums?

When I started writing about wine in the 1990s, the Hunter Valley was one of Australia’s most celebrated wine regions, but these days it accounts for only 2% of the country’s wine production. That helps explain why we don’t hear so much about it any more, but, given that the region produces a unique style of white wine and a highly distinctive style of red, it’s a mystery why its wines aren’t more widely acclaimed, even in its home country.

The white is Hunter Valley semillon (pronounced “semi-long” locally), a low-alcohol wine that in its youth tastes as bright, fresh and citrussy as a sauvignon, and develops a richness similar to a great white bordeaux as it ages (remarkably, without the influence of oak). On a recent trip, I tasted a sumptuous Brokenwood ILR Reserve 2009 (10.9% abv) that is wonderful now, but would drink well for another seven to eight years, provided you could keep your hands off it.

The main Hunter red is shiraz, which again is quite distinctive but very different from how it tasted 20 years ago, when the classic descriptor was “sweaty saddle”. Nowadays, expect a savoury, medium-bodied red, less ripe and sweet than Barossa shiraz and less peppery than the northern Rhône’s.

The Hunter has great chardonnay, too: Audrey Wilkinson Chardonnay 2014 (£14.99 Waitrose; 13.2% abv) nicely balances the region’s trademark acidity with subtly creamy oak (it’s named after a bloke, not a female winemaker, incidentally).

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... na-beckett

[paulf]

So I have been saying it wrong all this time

[winetastic]

That has got to be one of the most misinformed "articles" I have ever seen.

[Ian S]

I think someone was having a little joke at her expense with that pronunciation

[swirler]

No, Ian, a lot of winemakers and punters call it semi-long.

[Waiters Friend]

I would have thought Fiona Beckett had written enough about wine and food in general, and a fair amount of French pronunciation in particular, to get this right. "Sem-i-yon" is the French (and Spanish) pronunciation, with the double-L = Y

[sjw_11]

I have never heard it called semi-long... In Australia I generally heard Semillon with a hard L, and in France and elsewhere Semi-i-yon... though plenty of wine people in Oz say it that way too.

Maybe the hard L with an Aussie accent sounds like semi-long to some people?

To me, a semi-long sounds like a very different thing indeed !

[mjs]

Surely in oz ... semi-lon

[swirler]

Yes, I meant semi-lon.

[Pej]

I don't think I've heard anybody up there ever pronounce it any other way but semi-lon. I've tried correcting them and usually the response is, "we call it semi-lon".

[Mark Carrington]

That has got to be one of the most misinformed "articles" I have ever seen.

Setting aside the pronunciation debate, in what way, Ian?

[swirler]

Apart from the title which the author probably has nothing to do with and claiming HV has 'trademark acidity' (!) I see nothing wrong with that article from an overseas perspective.

[Michael McNally]

I have heard a number of winemakers from the Hunter, including some Tyrrells for example, call it semi lon.

Always irks me, but it's their grape and if they want to pronounce it different to the rest of the country then why not?!?!?

Cheers

Michael

[Chuck]

I recall many years ago someone saying the Hunter makes 90% of the noise but only 5% of the wine. Being so close to Sydney has its advantages. I wonder how it would have gone not being so close. The summer climate is a real issue. Definitely not Mediterranean.

All these years I thought it was pronounced semi-on aka Hunter Riesling.

Carl