There’s a new breed of chardonnay. Here are Tony Love’s top picks for the week.
COOL climate region fruit and sensitive winemaking has created a new breed of brilliant chardonnay, writes wine writer Tony Love.
There’s no escaping it — a revolution in Australian biggest white wine variety has occurred with cool climate region fruit and sensitive winemaking critical to a new breed of wines with a fresh and complex styling. The result: we’re making and drinking brilliant chardonnay because of it.
Jacob’s Creek
2016 / Reserve Chardonnay
Region: Adelaide Hills
Best with: Fish, white sauce
We already gave this smart buy a little run in our top Crows’
chardonnay last week and it’s worth another shot because it’s one of the sweetest-value buys in Aussie wine shops. This Adelaide Hills-sourced cracker shows why, with its more complex Hills-typical white stone fruit characters taking on definite oak influences, adding texture and mouthfeel. Get a feel for the variety at bargain rate, and you’ll find it often discounted further in the big barns.
$17
First Drop Mere et Fils
2016 / Chardonnay
Region: Adelaide Hills
Best with: Chicken liver pate
Chardonnay can be a pretty flexible variety in both where it grows and the wine styles it can forge, here with many new-generation techniques like whole bunch and wild fermentation, barrel maturation — including the yeast and grape solids that develop texture and more savoury characters than simply relying on forward fruitiness. You may find it a little restrained if it’s served too cold, and it will look even better beside a lunch spread.
$25
Di Giorgio Family
2016 / Chardonnay
Region: Coonawarra
Best with: White creamy cheeses
Welcome to one of the Coonawarra’s white secrets, its chardonnay, here in a most pleasing outing where sensitive winemaking nous has brought the best out of the region’s cool climate fruit. White blossom, cut stone fruit and wafts of roasted cashew all begin proceedings, returning the favours when tasting, wild fermentation-induced characters and texture adding their support with a subtle darker spice and lightly grippy finish. Lovely styling and excellent value.
$26
Nepenthe
2016 / Ithaca Chardonnay
Region: Adelaide Hills
Best with: Ham steaks
Let’s get a little serious now: More complexity coming from this Adelaide Hills iteration, oak-induced spices and zesty sensories from the start, but the power of the fruit rises higher and higher, with citrus peel, grapefruit juices and roasted pineapples all combining seamlessly in a midfield surge, aided by a creamy apple and lemon note as you sip. The wine has delicious poise and balance, its fruit depth and supportive secondary complexities offering complete satisfaction.
$35
Oakridge Willowlake Vineyard
2016 / Chardonnay
Region: Yarra Valley
Best with: Shellfish, broth
From the team of GT winemaker of the year David Bicknell, and one of three “Local Vineyard Series” focusing on specific site characteristic wines. While the differences between each are incremental, this version shows the most beautiful sense of synergism: florals and faint oak vanilla spices waft at first, then a bulls-eye ripeness with crunch and flavour of white nectarine and apple. Freshness, bite and sea shell impressions are also important elements, followed by a lingering finish. Stunner.
$38