The Grosset Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is a classic blend that, with its vibrant fruit flavours and trademark dry finish, is a very appealing accompaniment to a range of foods.
Grosset Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2012
Even though many critics regard this wine as among the country’s finest examples of the style, tasting this delicious white, it’s often possible to think that it doesn’t get enough credit for its quality. In years like 2012, it seems to have added another dimesion to the classic Australian style. It’s so tight, nervy, fine, powerful and minerally that one of the first to taste this vintage insisted that a riesling has been smuggled into a bracket of sem sauv blancs.
The framework of the style hasn’t varied over twenty-two harvests: it seamlessly melds Clare semillon with Adelaide Hills sauvignon. The current release is a blend of estate-grown Clare semillon (70%) and single-site Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc (30%). Given the comments about the vintage, above, it’s scarcely surprising that Jeffrey Grosset believes it’s one of his best ever Semillon Sauvignon Blancs. It’s probably a wine that will age well but after it hits its straps (it’s so tightly coiled that it will improve over the next six months) few will be able to resist the temptation to drink it at its freshest and most vibrant.
The 2012 Grosset Semillon Sauvignon Blanc has delicate, restrained white flower aromatics, intense and pure white peach, nectarine and lychees flavours, a lean and taut structure before a racy finish featuring slatey natural acidity. It is juicy, tangy and exhuberant: primal, expressive and thrilling.
General Cellaring Guide: Up to 5 years, more a ‘drink now’ style of wine.
Release Date: 1 August 2012
Reviews:
Tyson Stelzer, Wine Taste Weekly, Edition 83, 24 August 2012 – 95 points
Such is the pristine purity of this vintage that even a little time in old oak for the first time does nothing to interrupt its unreservedly honed focus and consummate control. Its fruit is immaculate, perfumed with pink grapefruit blossom, zesty with lime, even flamboyant with stone fruits, golden delicious apples and passionfruit. Signature Grosset structure of finely mineral, chalky texture, well-poised acidity and outstanding persistence confirm a benchmark 20th release for this label. Drink 2012-2013.
John Jens, , www.inmycommunity.com.au, 14 August 2012 – 18.5/20 points
Jeff Grosset has produced an exciting unwooded Semillon Sauvignon Blanc from the great 2012 South Australian vintage that is so good it is difficult to see how any winery could release a finer example. With regards to the vintage, James Halliday in his just released and essential wine reference The Australian Wine Companion 2013 says, “I cannot remember a vintage having received such hyberbolic praise right across the board, covering all regions and all varieties, as there is for 2012. Words that came up repeatedly were ‘fantastic’, ‘outstanding’, ‘sensational’, ‘best in my lifetime’, ‘perfect in every way’. Halliday has not reviewed Grosset’s 2012 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc yet but has listed the 2011 release as the only non- West Australian among his 17 highest pointed SSB blends tasted over the past 12 months – and the 2012 is far superior. A great SSB.
