TN: Tahbilk Marsanne 2016

[Waiters Friend]

G'day

When I first tried Tahbilk Marsanne in the mid-1990s, what struck me on that (rather boozy) night was how it was starting to develop. I hadn't tried the young Marsanne, but there was the beginnings of a richness that struck me as unusual for a relatively young wine. I thought it was only Hunter Semillons that did this, and they took a couple more years to start. What was this conundrum in a glass?

Fast forward 24 years, and I am still finding that I prefer to drink these after 3 or (many) more years of age. This one is starting to move from straw to yellow, and has a nice glow in the glass.

The nose shows the honeysuckle typical of the variety, along with some lanolin. When younger, this has some lemon about it, but it's fading from the nose now. The very first vestiges of honey are also present, and experience shows me these will become more apparent with age.

The palate is just starting to get a hint of viscosity which is another sign of development. This adds some weight and richness to the palate, which still has traces of lemon zest along with the honey/suckle characters. There's reasonable acidity and a moderate finish.

Maybe it's time to do a vertical of these.

Cheers
Allan

[Mahmoud Ali]

I really do like these Tahbilk Marsannes. The first bottle I ever had was a 1992, and though I was not entirely convinced, I did cellar a bottle because I had read about their ability to age, perhaps in a James Halliday hard cover book on Australian wines. I also recall Jancis Robinson refering to young marsannes having a glue-like qualty and the young 1992 wasn't that far off the mark. Anyway, fast forward almost 20 years and the same 1992 was glorious, and I wished I had cellared a few more of them.

Right now I have a few bottles of either the '08 or '09, can't recall which, but more importantly I recently looked into a box and to my delight found a little more than half a case of the 2010 vintage. Happy days!

[Bytown Rick]

perhaps in a James Halliday hard cover book on Australian wines.

Made me smile.