This wonderful wine is was based on the great whites of Pessac and Leognan in Bordeaux, an homage to the Sem/Sauv blend. It still has a decidedly Western Australian feel though and shows ripe lemon and lime preserve flavours with an endearing mineral ‘flintiness’. Barrel fermenting gives a creamy quality to the wine and a fine acid structure will ensure it is capable of improving with bottle age (5-7 years after vintage). Another one of Australia’s top white wines and something thoroughly different and enjoyable. A Wineaux classic.

Suckfizzle - Where Two Oceans Meet
Suckfizzle is a small vineyard located at the south-westerly extreme of the Margaret River grape growing region.

Here the converging power of the Southern and Indian oceans, provide a cool maritime climate characterised by drenching winter rains and long dry summers cooled by omnipresent sea breezes. In the north-east facing shelter of the Leeuwin Naturaliste Ridge and the Blackwood River, nature provided a unique viticultural mesoclimate for the Suckfizzle wines.

The Wines
Only two wines are made from our small vineyard:

• The white is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, the percentages a reflection of seasonal fortune. In style, the wine takes its cue from the very great wines of the Bordeaux appellation Pessac Leognan but showcases the inimitable Augusta style.

• The red is pure Cabernet Sauvignon - Margaret River's greatest natural asset and as a seasoned performer, willing to embrace the challenge of an exciting and new viticultural stage.

Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2004

written by Jeremy Oliver. Australian Wine Annual 2007 www.jeremyoliver.com.au
93/100 A charming new world white blend that flaunts its smoky vanilla oak influences. Its lifted, floral and dusty aromas of passionfruit, gooseberries, grapefruit and lemon are backed with nettle-like herbal undertones, and oak. Round and smooth, with a sumptious viscosity, its handsomely oaked palate of intense, juicy and herbal fruit finishes long and clean, with supple acids.

Gourmet Traveller Wine MagazineAutumn 2005 SemillonSauvignon Blanc Australia's Top 22 tasted and rated
It has lifted cedary oak, intense lemon grass with a squeeze of fresh lime and is vibrant and powerful with refreshing, natural acidity. Perhaps I shouldn't mention it but Sophie Otton detected a whiff of marijuana on the bouquet...Nick Bullied MW suggested a tight linear style and zesty acidity.

Ray Jordans Guide to Wine 2004/5
This is one of the more complex blends of these varieties. The use of some high quality French oak in the process adds immeasurably to the complexity and the texture. Smoky tropical aromas. The palate is tight, firm and complex with some potential ahead of it. High quality and distinctly different.

Scoop Magazine Summer 2004 Top New Release Whites: by Steve Charters MW.
A new Margaret River producer rapidly establishing itself as one of the most dynamic, innovative and thoughtful in the region. Every year I love this wine, and Rob agrees (Rob Bowen chief winemaker at Houghtons) making it his top wine of the night. He describes it as big and complex with great depth and well handled oak. It has a great structure and good length, spicy oak and grassy/citrus fruit. It’s a wine that will benefit from a few years’ bottle age which will allow it to develop palate length and greater complexity. Drink now or over the next seven years.

Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2002

Written by Jancis Robinson, May 2003 (Jancis Robinson Wine News)
Australian Sauvignon Blanc - some great 2002s As temperatures rise, even this confirmed Sauvignon Blanc-phobe has to admit that the refreshingly aromatic grape has its uses...the most exciting Australian Sauvignons to have come my way recently have been grown thousands of miles west of the Adelaide Hills in Western Australia. Even more sophisticated, and a challenging rival to Bordeaux's smartest dry whites, is ….Western Australian Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2001 Margaret River. Suckfizzle, and its second label Stella Bella, are the creation of the talented Devil's Lair winemaker Stuart Pym and his predecessor and partner Janice McDonald who clearly have a way with words as well as wine. The whole range is pretty impressive but this 4:1 blend of Sauvignon and Semillon is arguably the single most successful effort. Slightly fennel-flavoured, it has the same sort of lemon oil oakiness as a serious dry white Pessac-Léognan (Ch Pape Clément perhaps) but with real finesse and intensity. I went back to a bottle that had been opened about a month previously and still enjoyed the contents. Blends of aromatic Sauvignon with fuller-bodied Semillon are a speciality of the beautiful Margaret River region in Western Australia, most famous as one of the world's remarkably few ideal spots for Cabernet Sauvignon.

written by James Halliday. Australian Wine Companion 2006
Best of the Best of Australian Wine 2005. Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2002 94/100. Strong, toasty barrel-ferment aromas; fruit responds with zeal in a full array of tropical flavours. DRINK 2009

Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2001