Tahbilk Marsanne Nagambie Lakes – 2010

Chateau Tahbilk is one of Australia’s oldest family wineries, established in the Nagambie Lakes area of Victoria (about 120 miles north of Melbourne) back in 1860. It was highly-respected Australian wine writer James Halliday’s winery of the year for 2016. Tahbilk specialise in Rhone varietals, and Marsanne – the main white grape of Hermitage – is their flagship white. Each vintage they keep back a small quantity and age it an additional 4-5 years in the winery before release. The result is a white wine with wonderfully rich, toasty, lemon and lime flavours, perfectly balanced acidity and surprising minerality. This is fairly full bodied and powerful, but racy and fine at the same time – quintessentially Australian! James Halliday 96/100pts.