Seppelt Salinger Vintage Cuvée 2017

Seppelt chief winemaker, Clare Dry, has chosen to reduce the amount of sugar or dosage added to the company’s top sparkling, Salinger, thereby promoting its naturally fine cool climate attributes from 2017, a good year. A lower dosage also keeps the lip-smacking, citrussy acidity front and centre in this sparkling, a real treat. Expect dryness and acid crunch – remember we are talking about fruit from Henty, one of the cooler regions in Victoria – in equal measure, alongside a scintillating grapefruit, lemon, green apple fruit brightness. Three years on lees brings forward some subtle bread/dough notes and arresting oyster shell, nougat flavours bring a touch of complexity and length. The 2015 Salinger took out Sparkling Wine of Show at the recent National Wine Show. The 2017 is a good follow-up at a fab price.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic