On The Grapevine

with David Ellis

The answer lies in the seal...

Jorg Gartelmann in the award-winning vineyard he had doubts about.

Jorg Gartelmann was not exactly impressed with the soils of a Hunter Valley property he had in mind for a flag-ship Semillon he had hopes for under his Gartelmann label, but being a family paper we won't repeat here just how he described them.

He and wife Jan went ahead with the purchase anyway, and despite those early misgivings have come up with a 2005 Semillon that meets all their desires. Not that it was easy: they trialled six batches over three years before achieving their goal.

"Semillon is one of a couple of varieties that Hunter produces are ultimately judged on," Jorg says. "The property we were buying had produced good quality Semillon but we wanted more than that, but the soils on the half dozen different blocks all looked the same unimpressive grey-brown.

"We started to do trials, and were really surprised because wines from a couple of the blocks were consistently quite superior, showing very attractive minerally characters. I'm still at a bit of loss to explain why, but I suspect the soils on these blocks are little bit less acidic, a little bit less salty, so the vines can take up nutrients more easily."

Jorg and Jan decided to keep fruit from these blocks separate, and its paid off both with customers and on the Show circuit. Jorg describes the 2005 Semillon as 'a classic' with crisp and lively lemon and lime to the fore, and minerally acidity. It has nice aromas of lemongrass, citrus blossoms and a touch of passionfruit.

It's labelled Gartelmann Benjamin after Jan's late father who included Hunter Semillon amongst the joys of life. Pay $18 and match with chicken stir-fry with noodles, Asian greens, coriander, ginger, lemon grass and a splash of sesame oil.

One for the cellar: If you're one who likes delicate, slightly sweeter whites that go with things like plum pudd and ice-cream, put a bottle of De Bortoli's Windy Peak Spaetlese Riesling 2005 in the cellar for Christmas down the track. Good value now at only $14.95, with its screwcap it'll improve with age and in value for up to five years.