TN: Tahbilk Marsanne 2012

[Waiters Friend]

I've been drinking and cellaring these wines for over 10 years now, and the cellar has pretty much every vintage since 2004. Although I drink a few young, I am finding that they improve with a few years age.

Yellow colour bordering on gold. Honeysuckle dominates the nose, with some lemon and honeyed developed characters in support. The palate is rich and flavourful, with a greater palate weight than you would expect (if you had tried it as a younger wine). Acid seems to have settled down as a result, and complements the wine well by keeping it fresh and not too heavy. It has good length, without being excessively long.

These are an anomaly, in the same way that Hunter semillon is unlike semillons elsewhere. They age similarly as well. This one is in a good spot now - a balance between being mouth-filling and refreshing. I suspect the balance will head more towards the "wqeighty' side with more age.

Cheers
Allan

[Mahmoud Ali]

I quite agree about Tahbilk marsannes needing a few years of age at the very minimum. The one example I had some years ago was over 15 years of age and it was magnificent. I had cellared it based on its cellaring potential and I was not disppointed. Right now I have a few bottles of the 2008 and 2009, and between the two the '09 is riper while the '08 has more potential to age.

Mahmoud.

[Bobthebuilder]

I had this tonight
Really good, not sure if it was so much bottle development or the wine making style, thinking the latter considering its screwcap.
The honeysuckle was all there, some subtle funkiness that didn’t blow off, thankfully, because it contributed nicely. The lemon and lime flavours had gone well past freshly squeezed and taken on bakery pie and tart like flavours, without the sweetness.
This is drinking beautifully right now, but don’t think it’s going to fade any time soon.

[Willard]

Classic wine. I usually prefer them with a few years of age too, at least 3-4 years. I’ve had them up to about 10 years but no really old ones.

[Bobthebuilder]

The 1927 vines is very different
I took a 2006 to an offline a few months ago and it was just way too young

[Willard]

I agree on the 1927 vines being a different beast. Though my sample size is only a couple of bottles of 03 and 04, at 8-9 years they were acidic and phenolic and a bit hard going after a glass or two. Aging potential like Vat 1.

[dingozegan]

I prefer them with at least a bit of age (5 years minimum), and feel like they used to (under cork) hit a sweet spot closer to 10 years.
I think the last I had was a 2005 (under screwcap) a few years ago - I was seriously disappointed. Perhaps it needed time, but it seemed a bit like the style had change (going more tropical). The 2012 sounds back on form from Waiters' note, so it could have just been the vintage.

It has good length, without being excessively long.

I don't think I would ever consider a wine to have excessive length (unless the finish was particularly unpleasant, in which case it's just a bad finish rather than too long).