Hunter Valley Semillon is a new pleasure for me.  One of my favorite instructors waxed poetic about these wines, how they age so gracefully and gain mind boggling complexity, and somehow it took me another year to try one, due partly to the fact that I couldn’t find any locally and partly because I have the memory of a goat.  On a trip to Sacramento to visit MOBFOB (my finacee’s parents) they took me to a local grocery institution that has been around for 40 years, Corti Brothers, that has an incredible wine selection.  Darrell Corti selects the wines and I think that if he and I were to get together, I’d wake up in a haze with several empty bottles around me trying to figure out how I got there. The man has taste and has been buying wines for years which has created a selection with vintage depth.  The perfect place to find me some aged Hunter Valley Semillon!  The gem I decided to splurge for was the 1995 vintage of Tyrell’s HVD bottling. Tyrell’s is located in the small town of Pokolbin in the Lower Hunter. The Hunter Valley is a GI or Geographic Indication within the state of New South Wales, about a 2 hour drive from Sydney. Tyrell’s was founded in 1858 by Edward Tyrell, an English immigrant. Four generations later Bruce Tyrell is continuing the legacy and has vastly expanded the winery’s holdings. They now make wine from McLaren Vale, Limestone Coast, and Heathcote as well as Hunter Valley.  The HVD is from the Hunter Valley Distillery vineyard that was planted in 1908.  Yields are naturally low here due to old vines and 1995 was a drought year ( I guess what year isn’t in Oz) further reducing yields.  Most of this vineyards fruit goes into the Vat 1 bottling but they do bottle small amounts as a single vineyard feature when “all conditions are right”. Since 1995 they have not made this in ‘96, ‘00, ‘01 and ‘02.  The wine is vinified in stainless steel and does not see any oak.  I recommend decanting this one, it really needs time and air, plus the color will blow people away –  the rich buttery gold that someone recently described to me as what their pee looked like after a long night of drinking - TMI buddy.  On the nose it seduces you with lemon curd, butter toasted brioche, filberts, and a smoky stone core.  On the palate it transforms from the rich nose to a savory mineral laden and mouth watering explosion of porcini, roast white meat and clear acidity.  We had it with some seared foie gras on brioche with sherry vinegar roasted shallots — I want more……seek this out.