Chardonnay Tasting
All the wines were tasted blind and tasters were asked to guess the wines and place them in either the Australian category or French.
My notes were as follows (actual wine in brackets):
- Funky, yeasty and reductive. Better palate, quite a creamy texture but short. Must be faulty. (2000 Mount Mary)
- Huge lift of apricot and tropical fruit aromas. Oaky and oily palate feel. Poor structure and finish. Bannockburn? (2002 Eileen Hardy)
- Simple nose, quite sweet. Couldn’t be French. Palate lacks acidity/structure. Could be any of the Aussies. (2002 Penfolds Yattarna)
- Sulfur/reduction characters, really arm-pitty. Lots of oak and vanilla underneath. Starts to show fennel, mazipan and seaweed after warming up. Pretty good on the palate but the nose is awful. My guess, Bindi. (2000 Bannockburn)
- Sherbet, linden on the nose. Good poise on the palate, delicious acidity. Reminds me of 02 Giaconda. (2004 Cullen)
- Burst of ripe tropical fruit. Reminds me of Viognier: pineapple and lolly water. Very oaky palate. Hard. Strange oak, like red wood. LEAS? (2002 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay)
- Pongy, might be corked? Tropical fruit detectable, boring. Citrusy palate but short. Must be faulty. (2002 Tyrrell’s Vat 47)
- Iodine, like boiling crabs. Seaweed. Palate is more citrusy. Long, okay but boring. Could be vat 47, but not oxidative enough. (2004 Bindi Quartz)
- Sulfur, yeast, saw dust. Sweet rose petal aromas after vigorous swirling. A real departure. Boring. Persistent. Oak seems to suggest Eileen Hardy. (2004 Bass Phillip Premium)
- Awful nose. Must be a fault here. Seems like a wine making fault, botrytis and oxidation. Short. Extremely poor showing. Yuk. (1999 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne)
- Rich, sweet, hint of burnt rubber. Yum whafts of sweet (American) oak. Oxidative on the palate, big and sweet. Cloying in the back of the throat. Argh. Ruined. Must be Tiers. (2002 Petaluma Tiers)
- Muted aroma of peaches ripening. French? Tight. Acidic. Mealy. Peculiar pepperiness to the palate. Must be the Chassagne. (Gagnard La Boudriotte Chassagne-Montrachet)
- Oaky, rich, citrus fruit. Could be LEAS. Well made, spritzy acid. Can’t be LEAS, too elegant. Must be MM. (2003 Pierro)
- Smoky, boring nose. Could be a dud bottle of BdM. Alcohol showing on the palate. Muted. A little honey which suggests CC. Must be a bad bottle. (2002 Giaconda)
After thought:
I’ve had many vintages of BdM, including the 99 before. It was completely different to what I expected. I would have sent it back at a restaurant.
I picked the LEAS (good wine), Tiers (before it was so OTT) and the Chassagne-Montrachet.
Above all, I found these wines uninspiring. Despite enjoying the Cullen and LEAS on the night, I’m not going to rush out and buy any.
The Volnay seemed cooked on the nose. It could have just been VA. There was no cooked fruit on the palate. I liked the texture of the palate (it was the only way I could force down the main!) but the nose was vinegar.
