Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay 2005

First, provenance. I ended up with this bottle of wine (amongst others) courtesy of the Sydney Royal Wine Show, as a “thank you” for stewarding. The thing is, I can’t find out anything about it other than the fact that it won a silver medal at the 2008 Show. Nothing on the Wolf Blass website. So if you’re after some of this wine — sorry, can’t help you. Unless some of our readers (or the producer) can enlighten us all, of course.

It’s quite a tasty wine, though difficult too. The nose seems mostly influenced by winemaking rather than fruit — savoury mealiness, sweet vanilla oak, a touch of caramel. All pretty delicious if you don’t mind fruit flavours that take a complementary role in the overall profile. The fruit itself is lovely — white peach mostly — but oh-so subservient. Interestingly, this isn’t a totally juggy wine, and there’s enough of a funky thread to the aroma to present as challenging too.

In the mouth, some surprises. It’s not flabby at all, nicely propped up by acid in fact, and I am finding the fruit more prominent here than on the nose, at least initially. The attack is alive and crisp thanks to the acid, creating an impression of vibrant, fresh fruit, but this momentum isn’t maintained because the intensity of the fruit dips quickly as the wine moves towards the middle palate. It’s like a little explosion that disappears from view before you’ve finished taking in the effect. Is the fruit receding, or is the wine perhaps going through a stage? Who knows. Just as disappointment threatens to settle in, things pick up again on the after palate, though flavours here are more oak-driven. Classy oak, to be sure, but a bit blunt too. The finish slides into caramel and oat meal, and feels a bit hot to me.

Overall it seems a bit awkward and gangly, and it may be that I’m drinking it at a disadvantageous point in its trajectory.

Wolf Blass
Price: $A40
Closure: Cork

5 thoughts on “Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay 2005

  1. According to my price book, this should retail at about $40 each (though it looks like the 03 is current vintage).
    Can’t shed much light on it otherwise, except that this range is all released with some age on it & that the White Label Riesling, last time I tried it, was top notch.

    • Oh cool, thanks for that info Andrew, I’ll update the TN in a moment. I guess it’s still pre-release at this stage. Certainly not a bad wine by any means, and it improved with food.

  2. Yep, 2002 White Label Riesling was served at a Black Pearl wine & cheese night. It didn’t do much with the cheeses, except the ashed goat’s perhaps, but it was damn tasty on its own. Big suprise for me. Wolf Blass and Riesling had previously sounded, well, just wrong!

  3. can help with this one wait till September if in Melbourne go to Templestowe cellars you might find a surprise there..just picked up top gold in Brisbane this will be a cellar release from WB.

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