Match of the week

Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2007 and roast chicken with tarragon

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on July 15 2015 at 19:10

I never understand why retailers tell me it’s so hard to sell Hunter Valley semillon. It’s such a unique style of white wine which tastes (lusciously) of fresh pineapple when it’s young and of baked or grilled pineapple as it matures.

Maybe it’s because it aquires a slightly oily texture as it ages - a bit like a riesling but it’s also seductively rich and despite its low ABV (11%) a full-bodied enough partner for roast chicken as I discovered at the weekend. We tried it with a bird I’d roasted with tarragon and served at room temperature (delicious at this time of year). It was also perfect with a chicken pie I was trying out.

This particular vintage seems to have picked up an impressive number of gongs - it has 10 gold medals on the label yet is an incredibly reasonable £14.95 at slurp.co.uk and Hawkshead Wines. The 2005 vintage is even better value at £53.94 (£8.99 a bottle) at Tesco.

For more semillon pairings see this longer post.

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