2017 Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne, Nagambie Lakes

95 points I The Bert Bear Memorial Perpetual Trophy for Best Other White Varietal I 2024 Sydney Royal Wine Show

95 points I Gold at the 2022 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards

1927 Vines is the equivalent of a bottle-aged Hunter semillon, albeit with marsanne. It's ground-breaking in style, showcasing the grape in a different light. Herbals and florals to the fore on the bouquet, penetrating and lifted. High acidity is not a strength of the grape but picked early it's bracing and crunchy against a background of quince, green apple, grilled grapefruit and lemon zest. Still young and coiled tight, give it time. Drink to 2032.

95 points Jeni Port for Halliday Wine Companion (Special Value), August 2023

Tahbilk is Victoria's oldest family-owned winery, with vineyards to 1860 farmed since 1925 by the Purbrick family. Fifth generation Hayley Purbrick continues that work today with General Manager Joanne Nash.

Located within Nagambie Lakes wine region, the 300ha estate vineyards are planted in iron oxide rich soils and surrounded by the Tabilk-Tabilk wetlands. These are an integral part of the estate and believed to have a significant moderating effect to the warmth of the surrounding Goulburn Valley.

Tahbilk holds the largest and oldest holdings of Marsanne in the world, originally planted in 1860 with so-called White Hermitage cuttings from the St Huberts vineyard in Yarra Valley. Those vines have not survived, but the estate still holds Marsanne vines dating back to 1927, which produce the grapes for this wine.

The 2017 season started late after a wet spring and was cooler than on average, but with even and steady ripening of grapes. The resulting wines are low in alcohol, but with good varietal flavours and fine structures. The fruit for this wine was harvested early at high natural acid levels and handled with deliberate measured oxygen exposure. The juice was fermented at low temperatures and bottled early.

The wine clearly shows the cooler vintage with the heady herbal and floral aromas lined with citrus notes. The palate remains crunchy but is developing some honeyed and buttered toast characteristics and an appealing waxy mouthfeel.

Great company with cauliflower steaks with macadamia puree, XO pippies with crispy rice cake nests or roasted kingfish with lardons and brown-butter dashi.