Torbreck Woodcutter’s Semillon 2024

The 2024 Woodcutter’s Semillon is from a spectacular year in South Australia. It was warm and dry and everything good – ‘Goldilocks,’ in the words of winemaker Ian Hongell. On the back of the wet 2023 season, the soils were charged with moisture, and the growing year proceeded with calm and health. Everyone I met with so far, from both Barossa and McLaren Vale, has stars in their eyes about this vintage. Here, the wine leads with fresh-cut straw, lemon pith, green apple skin and white flowers. The wine is sleek on the palate; the phenolics are chalky and kick in through the middle palate and finish, but it remains a tightly focused, streamlined wine. I like the focus and detail here; the wine shows length and precision, but it has very little width and breadth, which are attributes in Barossa Semillon. Excellent. Drink date: 2025-2039. Score – 94. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 10, 2025)