2018 Brokenwood ILR Reserve Semillon

97 POINTS

Toni Paterson MW - Halliday Wine Companion

This wine is an unmistakable ILR and is one of the season's highlights. Alluring smoky tones and hints of lanolin adorn the ripe, lemony fruit. The sweet-natured palate is generous, flavoursome and powerful with moreish lemon butter tones. The rate of progression in this wine is driven by the warmth of the '18 season. That said, it is no less lovely, and the upside is that it's ready to drink now, so you won't need to wait years to enjoy it.

96 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

A glorious expression of a mature Hunter Valley Semillon is vividly captured in this outstanding example of the style and the variety. Already developing some attractive toasty characters with a little lemon butter richness. It’s always released at six years of bottle age, the crucial contributor to this highly individual Australian style. Lovely lick of lemon rind on the finish completes a beauty.

96 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

Always one of the superstars of Hunter Valley Semillon, the ILR is never released without at least a good five years ageing under its belt, at which time it is usually just beginning to show the glories that are ahead of it. The vineyard source varies from vintage to vintage, depending on which shines best – so if none measure up, then no ILR. This vintage is from the Oakey Creek vineyard, planted in 1982 and which the team purchased in 2021, although they have been sourcing fruit from it for several decades. This is a cracking ILR, indeed a cracking Hunter Sem, and, while it is drinking impressively now, has two decades of improvement ahead of it. A lemon/green hue. Early days, but already some appealing complexity. There are hints of lemon butter on toast, but surely much more to come. There are notes of figs and stone fruits and limes. Even that whiff of ginger. Immaculate balance, bright acidity, ideal focus and impressive length, this is a wine which has so much more to offer in the coming years. And whilst one can never confirm or deny such matters, it is entirely possible that, as I sit and write up all today’s tasting notes, there is a chilled glass of this very wine next to me. But, as they say, I couldn’t possibly confirm that.

96 POINTS

Jeremy Oliver

A classic developing Hunter semillon with a faintly toasty bouquet of lemon, melon, lime and bathpowder overlying a hint of butter. Piercingly intense, it's long, concentrated and wonderfully pure, delivering excellent length, intensity and drive of fruit underpinned by a very fine chalkiness and finishing with nuances of toast and butter. It has many, many years to tell its story.

96 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2018 ILR Reserve Semillon will be released in October 2024 (so, in three months from now). Aromatically, the wine leads with pressed white flowers, wet chalk, white beach sand and crushed shells. This is a beautiful, tightly wound, almost ethereal iteration of this wine. It is quiet, subtle, restrained, magnificent. These characters now will evolve over time to slowly unravel in wisps of toasty flavor. 11% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

I tasted this alongside the 2017 at the winery last month, and I liked the 2017 just a little more. Floral, lemon curd, lime, a bit of richness, honey toast. Plenty of flavour here, key lime pie (with zest) and pastry dough, but bright limey acid cuts though it, lots of length and crunch with a pebbly finish. I note a slight Disprin character in the aftertaste, which I like. A complex and very good wine. At six years of age, it’s drinking very well, though obviously there’s no tearing hurry.

95 POINTS

2024 - Decanter World Wine Awards

Meticulous orchard fruit, lime and buttered toast characters wrapped in a wonderful lanolin viscosity with a fresh, tingly acidity and long, salivating finish. Irrefutably benchmark. Award: Gold - DWWA 2024

94 POINTS

James Suckling

This shows aromas of lemon curd, dried lemons, citrus tart and steel. It’s medium-bodied with a creamy texture and an intense finish. There’s a chilled energy to this. At its peak now.