A highly complex white for just £20

Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon is one of Australia's rarest and most sought-after whites, a steal at just £20.

Matthew Jukes
By
published

2000 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia (£19.99, selected Tesco).

Over 100 Tesco stores stock this heavenly wine, which is one of Australia's rarest and most sought-after whites. At eight years old, it is just approaching its apogee.

So why is the UK's biggest supermarket selling this incredible nectar when you'd expect to see it on sale at some tiny independent Aussie wine specialist? The answer is that Tesco buys large quantities of a number of Tyrrell's 'lesser' wines; this epic parcel is a sort of 'thank you for your patronage' gesture.

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Vat 1 is one of only two truly iconic Aussie Sems (the other being McWilliams' Lovedale). It is an unoaked wine, but doesn't feel like it on the nose and palate because the age brings a broadness and nuttiness usually associated with barrel fermentation and ageing. These toast and lemon-curd notes are mesmerising.

Extraordinary when served with main course fish dishes, roast chicken (or turkey and goose!), veal, pork and so on, only top-flight Grand Cru Chablis has as many food and wine-matching tricks up its sleeve.

Highly intellectual, highly complex, highly sought-after and a steal at the price a nice combination.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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