Tag Archives: Chardonnay

Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2006

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I had this with food; specifically, a creamy chicken pasta dish. With a few minutes in the glass, this wine gave off aromas of roasted nuts, vanilla, coffee and spice (presumably oak derived), light sulfur, along with cool climate chardonnay fruit (white stone fruit, etc). It’s an attractive nose, with good volume and flavour integration, quite complex really.

The wine’s entry is smooth and focused, leading to a mid-palate that is again focused and reasonably intense. Flavours show tight preserved lemon and a range of noticeable, though not overwhelming, oak notes. There’s a nice crescendo of flavour towards the after palate, and this ensures pleasing persistence through the tight, acid-driven finish. This is an elegant wine of reasonable complexity. To return to the starting point, this wine went extremely well with food, graced as it is with ample acidity. It doesn’t jump out at me as a ‘wow’ wine in any particular way, but it’s also rather hard to fault. Excellent value.

Update: on the second night, this wine had upped the intensity an extra notch, without losing its focus and structure. I’m feeling happy to have bought a few of these.


Hoddles Creek
Price: $A18
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Kellerei Cantina Terlan Terlaner 2006

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This wine is a blend of 60% Pinot Blanc, 15% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Chardonnay, from the Alto Adige region of Italy. Unusual blend from an Australian perspective. Fermented in stainless steel and left on lees for six months, but with no lees stirring.

I served this a bit cold, so the nose wasn’t really able to express much when first poured. After some time in glass, the wine started to give off attractive, ripe fruit aromas and yeasty notes. The real action, though, is on the palate.

The wine’s entry is immediate and generously delivers bright flavours to the tongue, along with a nice dose of lively acidity. The middle palate sings with tasty fruit — citrus peel and pineapple and an almost overripe muskiness — underpinned and driven by really lovely acidity. Flavours drop off perhaps a little precipitously towards the after palate, but not entirely, so that a subtle echo of the wine’s flavour profile continues to ride the wine’s acid structure for a good amount of time on the finish.

I must say, I’m attracted to this wine very much. It’s not a wine of great sophistication, but it is generous and has a structure that is entirely complimentary to its flavour profile. Recommended.

Kellerei Cantina Terlan
Price: $A29
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

The Big Kahuna Chardonnay NV

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Extremely pale, flaxen color with an obviously watery rim. Slight aromas of pear and fresh sugar cane combined with a slight dustiness on the nose. In the mouth, medium bodied with slight residual sugar and a taste reminiscent of pineapple Jell-O, but with an attractive flatness there that is a subtle compliment to the bright tropical fruit (oak chips?). Thankfully, there’s a decent level of acidity that makes the slightly sweet finish more than acceptable.

Drink this puppy with spicy Asian noodle dishes or maybe even mole poblano – the sweetness and acidity should stand up just fine to any culinary onslaught you can think of.

The Big Kahuna (but really fresh&easy)
Price: US $1.98
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007

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Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, entered the US market last week with the opening of their fresh&easy stores in southern California. The Big Kahuna is their low end entry-level wine brand, produced in Australia. It competes with Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw line, better known as Two Buck Chuck. The differences? The Big Kahuna is packaged in attractive bottles with well-printed labels and high quality screwcaps (as opposed to shabby, trailer park-appropriate bottles with low quality corks). Plus, what’s in the bottle could easily pass for [yellow tail] at a third the price. It’s well considered, decent quality wine that isn’t at all disappointing considering the price.

Most importantly, this wine strikes me as being right on target when it comes to American consumers’ taste preferences. It’s attractively packaged, keenly priced, and has enough residual sugar to keep its audience’s interest. My only complaint would be that it’s not an American wine – surely Tesco could source this sort of thing locally instead of hauling it up here from the Southern Hemisphere?

Ngeringa J.E. Chardonnay 2006

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Ngeringa is a new biodynamic producer located in the Adelaide Hills. This is the first of its wines I’ve tried. It won’t be the last.

Pale green/gold colour of exemplary clarity. Straight out of the bottle, the nose was moderately expressive and showed high quality fruit and equally high quality, though perhaps overabundant, oak, plus a hint of sulfur. A little while in glass allowed the wine to gain its true balance. Exceptional focus, good intensity and real complexity make this wine a pleasure to sniff over and over. Fruit flavour is squarely in the cool climate spectrum, showing typical grapefruit flavours, etc.

The entry prompts flavours to widen quickly and spread through the mouth, without losing focus or elegance. Mid-palate is marked by genuine intensity of flavour that leads seamlessly to an after palate of excellent persistence, flavours stubbornly clinging to the tongue. Finish is crisply acid-driven. Mouthfeel has a creamy dimension but not to the detriment of the wine’s structure or line. I love this wine for the character and intensity of its flavour. It is a wine of sophistication, and accompanied our chicken dinner well.

Ngeringa
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007