The 2005 UMAMU Estate Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is a Margaret River SSB from our museum stock, now twenty-one years old. Most Australian SSB is made to be drunk young. This one has the horsepower to last the decades and continue to shine. My palate was brought up on French wines and how they develop and prime with time. Two decades on and our SSB05 is a rockstar winning medals.
UMAMU Estate 2005 SSB at a glance
| Vintage |
2005 |
| Style |
Semillon Sauvignon Blanc (SSB) |
| Blend |
65% Semillon, 35% Sauvignon Blanc |
| Region |
Margaret River, Western Australia |
| Alcohol |
13% |
| Closure |
Screwcap |
| Oak |
A portion fermented in French oak barrels |
| Release |
Museum stock, re-released 2025 |
| Age now |
21 years |
| Cellaring |
Drinking now; will hold to 2031 |
Download the technical sheet for the 2005 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc (PDF)
Twenty years old, and still winning medals
This wine has been judged repeatedly as it has aged. Gold at both the Australian Small Winemakers Show and the Wine Showcase in 2023. Silver at the Endeavour Group Margaret River Wine Show in 2025. Bronze at the Langton's Margaret River Wine Show in 2021. Four and a half stars from Winestate in 2022. In 2026 it was a finalist in the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry wine tasting competition.
In September 2026, Campbell Mattinson scored it 93 points: "Over twenty years old and still drinking beautifully. Remarkable."
Mattinson founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion, and is the only Australian to have won the Wine Communicator of the Year award more than once.
The vineyard
Our Sauvignon Blanc parcel was planted in 1987; the Semillon parcel in 1997, after my parents bought the vineyard. The Sauvignon Blanc sits at 130 metres above sea level, among the highest plantings in the Margaret River wine region. Both canopies are managed to improve light interception, and so flavour development through ripening, while reducing humidity in the microclimate.
The season — 2005
2005 was my first vintage with the family vineyard and UMAMU Estate's first vintage under our own label. It started to rain the day I opted to pick. We had to pause, and resumed a few days later. Didn't make that costly double harvest error again. The upside is that we ended up with two levels of ripeness and hence character in the fruit and a considerably more interesting wine for it.
— Charmaine, Principal, UMAMU Estate
Winemaking
The varieties were vinified separately, with an aromatic yeast selected for the Sauvignon Blanc and a textural yeast for the Semillon. A portion was fermented in French oak barrels to give background complexity and texture. The final blend was assembled once every component had completed fermentation.
Why we hold wines back
Cellaring potential is a sign of a well-made wine. It means the wine has the structure to develop rather than simply survive – the horsepower to become more interesting with time. The great estates of France have always worked this way.
Very few Margaret River producers hold SSB back long enough to show what it can do. UMAMU has, and this 2005 is the proof. You can taste the same evolution across vintages in our vertical three-pack, which pairs it with the 2007 and the 2016 – the 2007 is available only in that set.
Read more about UMAMU Estate's first twenty years, or explore the full Semillon Sauvignon Blanc range.
