The 1927 Vines Marsanne is Tahbilk’s most individual white wine, produced from 89-year-old Marsanne vines at the time of this vintage and assembled using fruit harvested earlier than the regular estate Marsanne to preserve the variety’s natural freshness and ageing potential. The estate’s approach of avoiding oak in the making of the 1927 Vines is deliberate: Alister Purbrick has noted that oak “tends to bring the wine forward,” undermining the aged complexity that is the entire point of this particular bottling. A wine that can be almost aggressively austere and mineral in youth, the 1927 Vines rewards patience above all else.

At the time of writing, the 2016 1927 Vines Marsanne has been in bottle for nine years, a period in which the variety and vintage are beginning to develop the secondary complexity that Tahbilk’s most dedicated Marsanne collectors look for: waxy honey, lanolin, developing toasted notes and the signature phenolic richness of old-vine Marsanne from the Nagambie Lakes. The 2016 was described in its youth by one Australian reviewer as producing wines that were “forward” for the label, with golden fruit and low acid, suggesting an earlier-opening character than some previous vintages. This may mean the 2016 is approaching its drinking window sooner than expected.

Tahbilk’s 1927 Vines Marsanne is a wine that defies straightforward comparison with almost anything else in the Australian white wine landscape. Its ability to age for twenty years or more, developing complexity that rivals the finest aged whites of the Loire and Hunter Valley, makes it an object of fascination for serious collectors of Australian wine. The 2016, now approaching a decade of bottle age, represents an opportunity to taste a genuinely ancient vine white wine at the beginning of its full expression.