I remember visiting the Hunter Valley with a contingent of media-types during the 1977 vintage and witnessing a wonderful cameo performance from the late great Murray Tyrrell.

He was completely in his element, sleeves rolled up to his armpits, scooping handfuls of fermenting shiraz grapes from the press and luxuriating as the bright red-purple juice ran down his arms and stained his shirt.

“Look at that colour,” he said. “This is going to be another great vintage.”

I was probably too early in my wine journey to fully appreciate the bottles he opened for us that day, but I vividly recall the enthusiasm and generosity he showed in sharing the contents.

Later to be dubbed “The Mouth of the Hunter” by Melbourne scribe Frank Doherty, Murray Tyrrell was one of the Hunter Valley’s greatest champions and, alongside the likes of the late Len Evans, also a significant figure in popularising wine in Australia.

These days, the family-owned company is in the hands of his almost-as-exuberant son, Bruce, and it obviously remains a potent-enough force to have celebrated its 150th anniversary last year by winning 19 trophies, 41 gold medals, 18 silver medals and 46 bronze medals at major Australian wine shows.
Tyrrells have produced many excellent wines from shiraz, chardonnay and (somewhat surprisingly given the Hunter Valley’s hot climate) pinot noir, but it is semillon that remains the real jewel in the crown.

I had the immense pleasure last week to taste a couple of new releases of aged single-vineyard semillons: Tyrrells 2004 HVD Semillon and Tyrrells 2004 Belford Semillon.

Both lines are well established in the Tyrrells stable but it is the first time that they have been sealed with screwcaps rather than cork and it’s certainly made a difference — one that I see as definitely a positive one.

The wines opened in pristine condition, and just as I’m sure that winemaker Andrew Spinaze intended. They’re starting to show the lovely honey-on-toast character that Hunter semillons famously develop as they age, but they’re also still quite youthful wines, with green-gold colour and a sliver of fine, zesty acidity providing a bracing backbone.

Tyrrells’ top semillons have long been renowned for their longevity and I’m sure that the use of screwcaps will give them an even longer life — and provide the consumer with a comforting guarantee that the bottle opened a decade or two after purchase will be in sound condition.

If I had to provide a preference, I’d go for the HVD (an old vineyard block planted in 1904 and named after the Hunter Valley Distillery) because it’s just that little bit leaner and tighter.

In times when wineries with no track record are sometimes charging twice as much and more, these two wines offer outstanding value at $30 a bottle.

John Rozentals is a qualified winemaker, a wine-industry media-relations consultant and also the proprietor of Oz baby boomers, a lifestyle resource for mature Australians. He is a former Features Editor of the Mercury.