IN THEIR younger days, Andrew Thomas and Andrew Margan worked together at Tyrrell's, and in this year's Hunter vintage their sons, Daniel and Oliver, joined forces in an audacious piece of winemaking.
The two Andrews both established their now highly rated eponymous wine brands in the late 1990s, and now their two next generation winemaker sons have collaborated in producing 160 dozen bottles of the offbeat Andrew Thomas 2022 Like a Version Semillon, reviewed below.
Using grapes grown on the prized Thomas 52-year-old Braemore vineyard on the sandy alluvial flats of Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, Dan and Ollie took fruit from the last pick of the season which was destemmed with the whole berries returned to a fermenter where they sat under inert gas cover for four days.
During that time, a spontaneous fermentation started with indigenous yeasts and the grapes were then pressed and back-blended with 50 per cent juice from one of more classic parcels of Braemore semillon, after which the wild yeast completed the fermentation.
The wine was racked twice during the post-fermentation and then bottled in June 2022 without any fining. It sells for $35 at thomaswines.com.au and the Pokolbin cellar door.
The annual Like a Version project involves Andrew Thomas inviting guest winemakers to produce a left field/cover version of his acclaimed classic-style Braemore semillon whites. The guest's brief is simple, Andrew says: do whatever you like to make a completely different style of wine to what I do with the same grapes.
"It's an exploration into the world of minimal input, natural, wacky wines using grapes from one of the Hunter most iconic semillon vineyards," he says.
The inaugural 1296 bottles of wine came in 2019 and was made by Thommo's pal northern Tasmanian Stoney Rise winemaker Joe Holyman. He had grapes foot trodden and left overnight before pressing the next day. There was no sulphur dioxide, no fining, no settling the juice, no temperature control. There was spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation on full solids and miniscule SO2 addition before hand bottling. The 2020 Like a Version was made by winemaker Georgie Jacobs, who was at Thomas Wines as an intern and is now at Oakridge in Yarra Valley.
Thommo says the 2022 vintage was time for Dan and Ollie to "have some fun with 1.5 tonnes of Braemore semillon" and he regards it as the best to date "being an interesting contrasting style without being too wacky for the sake of being different".
WINE REVIEWS
SAVOURY SEMILLON
THIS Like a Version 2022 Braemore Semillon brings a radical dynamic to semillon. It is brassy tinted straw in the glass and has aromatic gooseberry and ginger blossom scents and zesty kiwifruit front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows nashi pear, apple peel, lemon curd and savoury characters and a finish of slatey acid.
PRICE: $35.
DRINK WITH: salt and pepper squid.
AGEING: four years.
RATING: 4.5 stars
HAPPY HERLESTON RED
FROM the prized 55-year-old former Rothbury Estate vineyard, the Andrew Thomas 2019 Herlestone Individual Vineyard Shiraz has 14% alcohol, deep purple hues, potpourri scents and plush plum front-palate flavour. The middle palate displays mulberry, bramble jelly, pepper and vanillin oak and the finish ferric tannins.
PRICE: $35.
DRINK WITH: lamb shanks in cacciatore sauce.
AGEING: nine years.
RATING: 5 stars
VIBRANT WILLS HILL
AVAILABLE with other wines at thomaswines.com.au and the Mistletoe Lane cellar door, this Andrew Thomas 2019 Wills Hill Individual Vineyard Shiraz is bright garnet and has 13.6% alcohol, peppery aromas and vibrant blackcurrant front-palate flavour. The middle shows glacé cherry, briar, spice and mocha oak and a finish of minty tannins.
PRICE: $35.
DRINK WITH: apricot pork.
AGEING: 10 years.
RATING: 5 stars
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