23 October 2014
A QUARTET OF POSH CHARDONNAYS
Kooyong Faultline
Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2012
$60; 13.5% alcohol;
screw cap; 92 points
There's not much of your actual fruit to sniff here: no
peach or melon aromas or much of what you'd normally expect to find rising from
a glass of your actual Australian Chardonnay. Hang on: Maybe there is some
melon: the crinkly skin of the canteloupe, the rock melon which is what the
Americans call a muskmelon. Oh yes, it also smells like rock, or at least the
guano rock of Nauru: dry, sharp and acrid. Dusty, dry hessian. Burlap. Hemp.
The palate is slender and edgy, with a hint of that melon. No, it's not
canteloupe, it's more like honeydew flesh. Maybe a very creamy pear. The acid
is not so sharp as to dominate that sinuous, almost brittle sensation; it's
more of a squeeze of lemon on that fresh-sliced pear and honeydew. It's a
perfect, staunch drink for chicken or snapper baked soft in their own juice or
stock with a handful of fresh tarragon. Its sister, the Farrago ($60; 13.5%; 91+), is along the same lines, but perhaps not
so crunchy and a little more lime-and-lemony, with a comforting whiff of grilled
cashew. Both wines are best served cold from a decanter: it's really
entertaining to watch them unfold and swell as they warm.
Oakridge Guerin
Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2013
$36; 13.4% alcohol;
screw cap; 93+ points
This Guerin Vineyard is rock'n'roll: its Pinot is
outstanding, and this white's distinguished, to say the least. It has that edgy
Nauru/burlap/superphosphate reek, like the Faultline, but more immediate flesh
along those pear and lime/lemonjuice lines. It's more sensuous, without being
fat. Somewhere between what seems to be increasingly called curvy, and what was
once called slender, back when Australian humans could still boast a touch of
that condition. It's fine of flavour, almost fragile, with pithy tannins
leaning on the citrus acidity, and a really neat, slightly waxy texture. Once
again, it's cut to accompany big baked fish or pale fowl, but it would also
swim tidily beside the sort of toasty leatherjacket or brown-grilled garfish
Shazza and David presented yesterday at the sublime Fino. Oooh hell that little
Willunga joint rocks! But, really. Let's think of Chardonnay. These wines are
near the top of what Australia makes of this tricky, lazy Burgundian white. I
don't think they're close to either of the supreme Penfolds' multi-vineyard
blends just let loose, like the Yattarna or the Reserve Bin 13A Adelaide Hills
wine, but they're very good. Which makes me wonder: if this is the best we can
do thirty years after the ebullient bulldog, Len Evans (below) announced that
"Chardonnay will be the vanilla of the Australian wine industry" and
urged its planting from everywhere from Burke to Blanchetown and even
Piccadilly, from Hoddle's Creek to Horror Gulch, way down there in the
Badlands, well what? Why? The Oakridge Funder and Diamond Drive Block
model ($75; 13.4%; 93++) is finer and longer, but fairly, ummmm, spendy. So
what am I saying about Chardonnay? Unless you're growing it in the coolest
bottom bits of southern Victoria or Western Australia, the highest of the
Adelaide Hills, or Tasmania, you might be better off growing muscat or hemp.
Forget bloody vanilla.
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