Brokenwood ILR Reserve Semillion 2015 / This is the top dog from the Brokenwood stable (does one use a stable for dogs?). ILR, released only after a long spell in the cellar, is a tribute to their long term, peripatetic, former chief winemaker, Iain Leslie Riggs. It is whatever is the best wine from any of their vineyards. For the first time, the wine from their Murphy’s Vineyard, planted back in 1966, won the gig. If you are not familiar with that vineyard, it is in the Lovedale sub-region, so not a bad pedigree. Hand-harvesting, the fruit is crushed, chilled and pressed, neutral yeasts, no oak, no malo. Sounds so simple. And if any wine exceeds the vintage in 2015, this is it. There is a fine minerally background with serious length and a persistent finish. Notes of citrus, lemons and limes, pears, crisp green apples and more. Finely balanced, a seductive texture, excellent length and even the emergence of some early complexity. It already has some development, but it has many years ahead. In the year since first tasted, this has already picked up a little and shows every sign of doing so to a greater extent. 95p
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