Making Hunter Valley Semillon approachable.

Hunter Valley Semillon (HVS) is regarded as an iconic style within the Australian wine industry. It is much-lauded by wine professionals and has an enviable wine show record in both Australian and International wine shows. The complexity of flavour that can develop in aged HVS has led to the description of the style as being 'one of Australia's great gifts to the world of wine'. It is surprising therefore, that consumer sales have not been commensurate with this standing. Some sections of the Australian wine Industry have embraced a paradigm shift towards producing wine that consumers demand. Partly driven by this shift, the iconic HVS style was thought to be an ideal candidate for a new project at the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre. The ambitious program of work was funded by the GWRDC within the Winegrowing Future's program to examine consumer preference for HVS. The project undertook to characterise HVS by way of a traditional sensory flavour map and to define key styles. The definition of styles is a new technology that has formed the platform for further inter-disciplinary research on Semillon, specifically, chemistry and viticulture.