Chardonnay ranges from everyday quaffing wine that you don't give much thought to, to complex, textured wines with layers of flavour and lingering finishes that you can sip and savour and delight in.
◊ BEST UNDER $15
(about $14, but check for discounts)
This ubiquitous Australian chardonnay has a hint of lemon biscuit and a simple clean finish.
Basic everyday chardonnay, worthwhile if you can find it discounted.
- Two stars (out of five)
- Average value
(about $23, but often discounted)
Oodles of juicy fruit - pineapple, peach, ripe apple - a fruit salady wine with a hint of cream and a fresh finish.
- Three stars (out of five)
- Average value
(about $27)
There's a lot going on in this Central wine - flavours that suggest buttery toast, crisp toffee, zesty citrus and mellowed tropical fruit.
At two years old it has a creamy, slightly mealy texture and a bright, very crisp finish.
- Four stars (out of five)
- Good value
(about $25)
Here's a chardonnay strictly for those who enjoy oaky wines - there's suggestions of fresh sawdust, vanilla, butterscotch, beeswax, buttered nuts and toasty oak, but there's good fruit supporting all that oak.
A seductive wine for lovers of oaky flavours.
- Four stars (out of five)
- Good value
(about $30)
Another wine with lots going on, from hints of roses and beeswax to toasty oak and buttery nuts with crisp, intense fruit and a well integrated, textural finish. Delicious.
- Four stars (out of five)
- Average value
(about $49)
Pegasus Bay's top wines are unusually stylish and this is no exception with its funky, slightly smoky aromas, hints of nuts, citrus, stone fruit, and background of toasty oak, and a long, crisp, lipsucking finish, but for all that that it's more about structure, texture and complexity than fruit and oak.
Although a delicious talking point now, give it three or five years to show what it really can do.
- Five stars (out of five)
- Average value
~ ANOTHER GLASS ~
Stoneleigh Marlborough Chardonnay 2008
(about $22, but look for it on special)
Lots of attractive pineapple and juicy citrus fruit here with a biscuity, oaky background and crisp finish.
- Three stars out of five
- Average value
Montana Ormond Gisborne Chardonnay 2006
(about $36)
A powerful wine, zesty with hints of toasty oak, nuts and creamy milkpoweder, mellowed with bright zesty fruit, a hint of beeswax and bright, crisp finish.
- Four stars (out of five)
- Below average value
- Two stars - simple, clean, enjoyable wine; three stars - good wine with varietal characteristics; four stars - very good wine with some outstanding characteristics; five stars - outstanding wine with balance and harmony that leaves you with a sense of wonder.
- Although wine sent for review is tasted blind to eliminate preconceptions, all wine tasting and evaluation is subjective. These are personal recommendations.
