Pfeiffer 2009 Marsanne

While there are plenty of cases where a winery is widely associated with a particular varietal or blend I can't think of too many examples where the reverse is true.

One case where it is, of course, is Marsanne, the Rhone varietal that has become almost synonymous with Tahbilk, which continues to set the benchmark for the variety in terms of both quality and price. there's no one else (at least no one I've managed to track down) who does it as well, and as consistently, and at $13 for the current release there aren't too many places that can compete on price either. There's also a vertical six pack with two bottles of the 2010, and singles of the four preceding years for a rather remarkable $75 freight free.

Which possibly explains why, much as I liked this take on the variety from Pfeiffers, it's not likely to be featuring in a reorder.

Pfeiffer 2009 Marsanne (4.5* $18.50) Pale straw green in the glass, stone fruits and citrus on the nose and a strong presence of honeysuckle across the palate and a crisp finish, this is a rather classy full bodied well weighted take on the variety and would probably handle a couple of years bottle age. Label me impressed, but there's the Tahbilk factor, so I'll probably be looking at the other Pfeiffer lines when it comes to filling a reorder.