Gundog Indomitus Albus Hunter Semillon 2025

No one is ever going to convince me that this wine was not named by a movie fan. Jurassic Park meets Harry Potter. Alan Grant and Albus Dumbledore would be proud. As a wine, it is the Hunter Valley Semillon which enjoyed fermentation with wild yeast in barrel. In addition, the team left a portion of the wine on skins for an extended maceration period of 175 days (for those unfamiliar, this is an extremely long time). Maturation was for a further six months. As well as the fruit traditionally harvested in the Lower Hunter Valley, there are also parcels from the Upper Hunter. Just 140 dozen were made. Yellow straw in colour, this is ripe and complex, very much with a seductive textural aspect and some influence from phenolics. There are notes of beeswax, citrus and apricot skins. A line of zesty acidity runs throughout and there is excellent length here. This wine may raise a few eyebrows with some people, but it will also thrill many wine lovers. Enjoy it over the next six to eight years, during which time it will surely improve even further. Recent vintages may have appeared slightly more impressive at this early stage (not that this wine isn’t, of course), but this one will surely match them in time.