From AU$11.99, 109 Swedish krona, $10, £9.50, €10.50, CA$17.95, NZ$20.20, 1,790 Japanese yen, HK$148
This wine of the week is not expensive but is all about longevity.
Almost 11 years ago, Julia wrote up the 2005 Tahbilk Marsanne as a wine of the week, having first enjoyed an even earlier vintage 10 years prior to that. Eight years ago, my husband and I served the 2002 Tahbilk Marsanne Museum Release (the same wine, held back 4–5 years before release) at our wedding in England, which had an all-Australian wine list (pictured right). And just last month, at an extremely fun wedding in Melbourne, Tahbilk Marsanne graced the table once more, 2017 vintage this time, reminding me what a great-value stalwart of a wine this is.
Marsanne hails from the Northern Rhône where it is an important ingredient in Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, St-Joseph and St-Péray, but Tahbilk has the largest holdings (and the oldest vines) in the world, dating back to 1927. This is honeysuckle in a bottle, with stone fruits, lemon, and nutty and herbal notes. Honeysuckle may sound cloying but it’s not – the flavours are lovely and fresh and it’s unoaked, having been fermented in stainless steel. It’s also just 12% alcohol. And, like the Best’s Bin 1 Shiraz reviewed recently, what’s amazing for a wine at this price is that it ages beautifully, getting even more honeyed and even a little petroly with age. Our tasting notes database rates vintages of Tahbilk Marsanne from 1973 to 2011 with an average drinking window of 13 years, in some vintages up to 25 years. How many sub-£10 wines offer that?
It’s usually elevation that (by moderating temperatures) denotes quality wine regions in central Victoria, but not here. The name Tahbilk originates from tabilk-tabilk, the local Aboriginal name for ‘place of many water holes’. The waterways of the Nagambie Lakes make this the only Australian wine region whose climate is markedly influenced by an inland water mass, dropping the temperature by a good three degrees Celsius. Tahbilk sits on 11 km (7 miles) of Goulburn River frontage and 8 km of backwaters and creeks. There’s even a lovely wetlands walk you can take around the estate (I can attest to its loveliness, having walked it a few years ago).
Relying on water to moderate the temperature brings climate change into sharp focus here. Tahbilk was certified as carbon-neutral in 2012 by global certification scheme CarboNZero and has myriad projects under way to continually reduce both energy and water consumption. Tahbilk’s environmental manager Hayley Purbrick, fifth-generation of the Purbrick family who own and run the estate, acknowledges that minimising their environmental impact is key if Nagambie Lakes is to remain a moderate climate capable of making good wine for generations to come.
The price of Tahbilk appears to have barely gone up in a decade, in the UK anyway; Julia had listed the 2004 as available at the Wine Society for £7.75 in 2007, and the same merchant is currently selling the 2016 vintage at a mere £9.50 a bottle. I haven’t specified a vintage for this wine as different vintages are available in each market: 2017 is the current vintage in Australia, widely available of course; 2016 (and earlier vintages) are in the UK; and Wine-Searcher lists various vintages also in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan.
