A thrilling sem-sauv blend

published 6 December 2019

2018 Aristea sauvignon blanc/semillon, Elgin, South, Africa

£25.95, reduced to £23 on offer until 31 December, Private Cellar, 01353-721999, privatecellar.co.uk

I love the Aristea wines and the new releases are the finest to date. Owner Martin Krajewski encouraged his winemaker Matt Krone to reach for the stars while putting these wines together and this year the 2018 chardonnay (with an offer price of £25 per bottle and £50 per magnum) is a suitably flamboyant creation, while the 2017 cabernet (on offer at £27 per bottle and £54 per magnum) is focused, noble, relatively forward and stunningly balanced.

My featured wine is the pick of the bunch. I am a committed fan of the top-flight sem/sauv blends from Bordeaux after all, white Graves wines are some of the most complex and age-worthy in the world. Aristea takes this ultra-sophisticated model and modernises its recipe, leading with racy Elgin sauvignon blanc and augmenting it with lusty, lime pith-smooched semillon. A 75/25 blend is treated to one year of maturation in 500-litre format French oak. This serves to polish the wine, lending it an imperceptible sheen of nougat and blanched almond sophistication.

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The result is a wine which can, on the one hand, be drunk as a keen, citrus-imbued, classy aperitif and on the other a fully fledged main-course, fish-dish stunner. The tightrope walk between lush fruit and dramatic acidity is achieved with rare precision in this wine. I cannot recommend it enough. It takes a much-admired recipe and gives it a thrilling makeover to bring it bang up to date.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

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.