Mount Pleasant : Lovedale Sémillon 2018

The 2018 Lovedale Single Vineyard Semillon today is toasty and broad, without being heavy or dense. There’s torched citrus, caper brine, a hint of green olive tapenade, nashi pear, wet chalk and preserved lemon rind. Long, lingering and intense, it’s a lovely wine. 11% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

This cellar-aged wine has an intense bouquet of lemongrass, with subtle toastiness from bottle age. The palate is quite powerful, ample and dry, savoury and appetising, with an atypical touch of richness. Intense, tightly focused lemon/lemongrass and savoury, developed flavours create a powerful palate impression that lasts long on the finish. The Lovedale vineyard was planted by Hunter legend Maurice O'Shea in 1946.

Considered by many to be the finest expression of straight Semillon, here or anywhere else. Scents of lanolin, lemon drop, wild fennel and a hint of something soapy and broad, verging on buttered toast. A softer vintage perhaps suited to earlier drinking, yet still a magnificent featherweight, destined for a life of 10 to 12 years. Transparent, highly regional and thoroughly convincing. An inimitable wine of terroir. Drink or hold. Screw cap.