Alkina house spotlight
Amelia Nolan, winemaker at Alkina, is on camera in The Grape Nomad's Meet the Masters film from the certified organic and biodynamic Greenock farm behind this Semillon.
The market on this bottle
Look up this bottle on Wine-Searcher for live market prices.
2023 Alkina Old Vine Semillon Barossa Valley, Australia
Amelia Nolan's Kin Old Vine Semillon from Greenock, Wine Advocate 91, a 2023 you can open at twenty-two dollars.
The 2023 Alkina is 100 percent Semillon, skinsy and chalky, blood orange, white flowers, crushed rock, and green apple skin, 12.5 percent, screwcap, now $22.
Barossa Semillon that drinks like stone and peel, not oak
Amelia Nolan's 2023 Kin Old Vine Semillon is skinsy on purpose. Wine Advocate 91 found Campari, blood orange, white flowers, crushed rocks, and green apple skins, gently bitter, salty, and tangy, 12.5 percent, screwcap. Halliday 93 found yellow fruit, citrus, pear, souk spice, clotted cream, grapefruit pith, and a lemon-drop close. Two ferments, one in concrete tulip, one on skins, then a blend. This is the bottle that argues Barossa white can be textural and dry at twenty-two dollars.
The house
Amelia Nolan makes Alkina on a certified organic and biodynamic farm near Greenock, with Alejandro Bulgheroni.
The wine
100% Semillon. Concrete tulip plus a skins ferment. No malo. Unfined, unfiltered. Screwcap.
The scores
Wine Advocate 91. Halliday 93. Blood orange, rock, lemon, a salty close.
The drinker
Serve 46 to 50 F. No decant. Oysters or roast chicken.
Blood orange and rock, then lemon and salt
Erin Larkin at Wine Advocate called it skinsy and chalky, Campari and blood orange, white flowers, crushed rocks, green apple skins, gently bitter and textural, salty and tangy. The house note is lemon, jasmine, lemongrass, and stone fruit on succulent acidity with a light phenolic grip. Halliday found a slinky, stony acid drive and a long lemon-drop finish.
A cool, wet, late Barossa year. Alkina picked Semillon on 15 March, two weeks later than 2022, then brought the two ferments together on 9 April. Freshness and purity are the vintage line. Four hundred twenty dozen.
Blood orange, Campari, lemon, jasmine, lemongrass, white flowers, green apple skin.
12.5% ABV, skinsy phenolics, concrete, no malo, unfined, unfiltered.
Crushed rock, salt, lemon drop. Serve 46 to 50 F. Screwcap.
Concrete tulip, then a skins ferment
Nolan ran two ferments. The larger went to a concrete tulip with 10 percent whole berries and 10 percent whole bunches. The second fermented on full skins, 40 percent whole bunch, in stainless. Both were wild. They were blended on 9 April, skins making up 10 percent of the wine. No malolactic. Unfined and unfiltered. Screwcap.
The farm is certified organic and biodynamic. The point is peel, rock, and acid, not new oak.
Serve 46 to 50 F. Oysters first. Roast chicken second.
A new story on an old Greenock place
Alkina sits on Ngadjuri country near Greenock. Alejandro Bulgheroni bought the farm in 2015. Amelia Nolan is the winemaker.
The Old Quarter holds Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro, and Semillon from the 1950s. Kin is the label where Nolan explores parcels and ferments.
Adnyamathanha artist Damien Coulthard makes the Kin art. The farm is certified organic and biodynamic.
The 2023 Semillon is that house in a cool year: peel, rock, screwcap, no oak speech.
Oysters, then roast chicken
Skinsy Semillon wants brine and roast fat. Oysters take the salt. Chicken takes the lemon and jasmine.
Two plates. One tray of oysters. One roast chicken.
Serve 46 to 50 F. No decant. Screwcap, open it tonight.
Oysters on ice
Lemon, mignonette, nothing else.
Why it works: Brine and Sauvignon Blanc are the same conversation.
View Recipe for oysters with mignonette (opens in a new tab)
Roast chicken
High-heat roast, lemon, thyme, garlic.
Why it works: Roast fat and lemon echo citrus while acidity cuts the skin.
View Recipe for roast chicken (opens in a new tab)Put this Semillon in the cart
Amelia Nolan, Wine Advocate 91, Halliday 93. Twenty-two dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is skinsy Barossa Semillon with rock and peel, not a fat oak white.
