Tahbilk Winery 1927 Vines Marsanne 2016

There are plenty of Australian wines that tell a story, but few can claim to have quite as much history in the bottle as Tahbilk’s 1927 Vines Marsanne. At the historic Tahbilk estate in Victoria’s Nagambie Lakes, Marsanne has become far more than a grape variety, it's part of the winery’s identity. Tahbilk’s connection with Marsanne stretches back to the 1860s, when cuttings identified as ‘White Hermitage’ were sourced from St Hubert’s Vineyard in the Yarra Valley.

Origins

Although those original vines did not survive, Marsanne found a permanent home at Tahbilk in 1927, when newly appointed winemaker Eric Stevens Purbrick requested its planting. Those vines are now among the oldest Marsanne vines in the world, producing fruit for one of Australia’s most distinctive and quietly remarkable white wines.

Winemaking

The 1927 Vines Marsanne is particularly fascinating because the winemaking philosophy is almost deliberately counter-intuitive. The grapes are picked relatively early, when natural acidity is high, rather than waiting for maximum ripeness and weight. The juice is allowed to oxidise fully before the clean juice is fermented at low temperatures, around 11–15°C. At this stage, the wine is remarkably unassuming—pale, delicate and high in acid, with little indication of what it will eventually become. There is no attempt to dress it up with obvious winemaking tricks. Instead, the wine is bottled and allowed to evolve slowly over time. This patient approach is central to the character of the 1927 Vines Marsanne: what begins as something rather restrained gradually transforms into something layered, textural and deeply expressive.

Tasting

And that transformation is where the magic lies. Young Marsanne can be crisp, mineral and citrus driven, but bottle age brings an entirely different personality. With time, the 1927 Vines develops aromas and flavours of honeysuckle, preserved lemon, wild honey, beeswax and gently marmalade like citrus. There is often a wonderful waxy, almost lanolin like texture, balanced by the wine’s persistent acidity and mineral backbone.

It's not a showy wine in the conventional sense. Its appeal is more intriguing than immediate, a wine that rewards attention and reveals itself slowly in the glass. For anyone accustomed to thinking that Australian white wine is primarily about Chardonnay, this is a deliciously persuasive argument for looking further afield.

Awards and Accolades

The wine’s reputation has been built over decades rather than manufactured overnight. The first dedicated 1927 Vines Marsanne was released from the 1998 vintage, and successive releases have established an impressive record in wine shows and critical circles. Across Tahbilk’s Marsanne wines, the estate cites a remarkable tally of more than 70 trophies and hundreds of gold, silver and bronze medals, reflecting the variety’s extraordinary consistency and longevity. Individual vintages have also attracted outstanding critical attention;

The 2016 1927 Vines Marsanne, received 95 points in a major Australian wine review, praised for its honeysuckle, wild honey, preserved lemon and beeswax character.

Perhaps the greatest accolade, however, is the wine’s ability to challenge expectations. Marsanne remains relatively obscure in many European markets, where the grape is far more likely to be encountered through the white wines of the Northern Rhône. Tahbilk offers a compelling alternative interpretation: distinctly Australian, yet connected to a variety with deep Rhône heritage. The combination of ancient vines, dry Australian conditions, restrained winemaking and extraordinary ageing potential creates something that feels genuinely individual.

The 1927 Vines Marsanne is therefore not simply a wine to drink—it is a wine to discover. Open it young and there is freshness, citrus and mineral energy; give it years in the cellar and the wine becomes richer, more complex and almost hauntingly aromatic. It is a reminder that Australia’s wine story extends well beyond its famous Shiraz and Cabernet, and that some of its most interesting treasures are made from varieties the rest of the world has barely begun to notice. Tahbilk’s 1927 Vines Marsanne is a remarkable piece of living wine history, with the patience to become more interesting long after most bottles have been forgotten.