Chasing the best quality /price ratio between $20 and $50
You can read Part 4 HERE, Part 2 HERE, and Part 1 HERE
After completing part 2 of this series last year, I looked forward to doing this sequel with great expectations. This time, the disappointments outnumbered the great surprises, and any kind of consistency among the various reviews still eludes us.
Looking at Huon Hooke’s list of top 2019 chardies from Australia – in order of ranking – we find the $17 Blackstone Paddock from Aldi sitting at number 33, just below the $175 Penfold’s Yattarna on number 32. I tried to get a sample at 3 different Aldi stores but no luck. 3 strikes and you’re out.
On Huon’s list of Best Chardonnays in Margaret River, we find the $25 Domaine Naturaliste Floris Chardonnay 2019 nestled comfortably in 6th place, between the $100 Fraser Gallop Palladian and the $80 Moss Wood.
The 2019 was our top Chardonnay under $25, and one of the best under $50, but it’s long gone. Sadly the 2020 isn’t in the same lofty class. The Discovery 2020 is also underdone. Shame. Is it the vintage?
WILDCARDS
Miles from Nowhere Chardonnay 2020 – $10 at Kemenys (as a secret label). Scores 95 points at the Real Review: ‘Scents of summer leap out of the glass, stone fruit, nectarine, peach and apricot. Noble reduction, sweet spices, ginger blossom and acacia, super-fine acidity and a slight phenolic grip adds intrigue. A myriad of layers keeps me coming back to this wine. 95 points, Amanda Yallop.
This wine didn’t grab me as much as it did Amanda, but it’s terrific value for money even with our score of 92 points.
The $17 Blackstone Paddock from Aldi is another wildcard. The 2019 picked up trophies for best Chardonnay and Best White at the 2020 Margaret River show. Huon Hooke has been beating the drum for this wine for years – here’s his review of the 2020: ‘Light, bright yellow hue, with an intense grapefruit aroma, very typical Margaret River chardonnay, the palate bright and zesty, intense and alive, with great energy and drive, the acidity balancing a subtle twist of sweetness, before a medium-length finish. A smart wine at an eye-widening price.’
THE SHORTLIST UNDER $30
One of our best picks this year was the Scorpo Aubaine Chardonnay 2019 – still on offer for $28 at Nicks. There’s plenty of flesh on its bones, especially for a Mornington Peninsula chardy, and lots of flavour. The fruit is white peachy, the oak nods toward cashews, there’s a soft touch of struck match. It’s a vibrant chardy, full of life and flavour. Perfect pitch. 96 points. You’d be hard-pushed finding a better chardy for less than $50.
The brilliant Hoddles Creek Estate 2019 has long gone, however. It was a stunning chardy for the money ($20), richer and more full-flavoured than usual. It was a warm year, and I suspect Franco d’Anna allowed more malolactic fermentation than usual.
The Hoddles Creek Estate 2020 is back to the clean, restrained style of the 2018, which I thought would build flavour and character in bottle. I was wrong: It sat on the knife’s edge for a time and then fell over to the lean and mean side.. Gary Walsh likes the 2020 better than the 2019. I have my doubts but bought 6-pack to see what happens.
The first time we tasted it a few months ago, the Kumeau Village Chardonnay 2020 came across as more low-key than the 2019 I love, yet a second bottle we opened this week was much more convincing, full of vibrant energy and tension, yet still with that seamless, silky texture that makes this label a stand-out. No struck matches here, and no oak chips or grapefruit pips to spit out, just a gorgeous Chardonnay that will become another favourite. 94+ points. $19 at Kemenys or DM’s.
Jancis Robinson likes it too: ‘Surprisingly rich nose. Fine, appetising, crisp palate with just a little chewiness still evident at this point. There’s a suggestion of sweet grapefruit juice. Really clean, fresh and long. 16.5 / 100.’
Another wine that impressed us in 2021 is the Isabel Chardonnay 2019 – $25 at DM’s. It’s from a New Zealand winery owned by Dan Murphy’s, so you won’t find it anywhere else. They often run a $25 member offer on this wine, which knocks 4 off the usual price. I liked the 2018 a lot, but it will take another year or two for the oak to calm down. The 2019 is just as rich, round and intense with the oak less intrusive. (95 points)
BEST CHARDIES OVER $30
The price is creeping up but Oakridge still offers great value compared to most of the fancy contenders out there.
The Henk 2019 is fast selling out – you can still get it at Cloudwine for $33. The nose promises finesse and polish, with aromas of white peaches and cashews, and a palate that unfolds like a fan made of the finest silk. After a day or two in the open bottle, it shows more depth and intensity yet the finesses remains. A modern Chardonnay master class. 96 points.
Willowlake 2019 – $32 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity (promo code BWU20). All the chardonnays in the Vineyard Series are made the same way, so they tend to be very similar. Willowlake is a tad more crisp and nervy, and shows more citrus and notes of green apple. Needs a bit more time to settle down. 95 points.
The Hazeldene Chardonnay 2019 – $32 at DM’s – is yet another option, which I haven’t tried. MB at The Wine Front likes the ‘minerally tang, great and pretty appley character underlying. It’s firm too; time to burn. A great impact here. Serious and stern and complex. It’s emphatic about Australia’s modern, high quality chardonnay credentials. 95+ points.
Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2020 – $36 at Summer Hill Wine. The Braijkovich family makes world-beating Chardonnays from its vineyards at the western outskirts of Auckland. When entered in blind tastings overseas, critics and winemakers often think they’re drinking drinking Corton-Charlemagne or Meursault.
Here’s a recent blind tasting of Kumeu River against top class Burgundies reported by Decanter, and by Jamie Goode at Wine Anorak. Lisa Perotti-Brown from the Wine Advocate said: ‘If you can taste history, duty, and family pride in a glass, it’s there in the Kumeu River Chardonnays … now producing some of New Zealand’s greatest Chardonnays, not to mention the world’s.’
The Real Review’s Bob Campbell describers this wine as ‘a rich, textural and silken chardonnay with tree fruit, peach, nectarine, toast and brioche flavours. A seamless wine with a backbone of bright acidity helping to drive a lengthy finish. A stylish, polished chardonnay. 94 points.
Grand Dame of British Wine critics Jancis Robinson says of the 2020 Estate Chardonnay: ‘Lightly but not excessively reductive on the nose. Already quite expansive on the nose with beautiful impact on the palate: citrus, blossom and really neat acidity without much astringency. Elegant and racy – almost lightweight on the mid palate and then it is impressively persistent. A thorough delight already. 17/20 points.’
Here’are JR’s reviews for the other KR chardies, which range up to $100 in price. The good news for us is that only a single point on JR’s scale separates the most expensive wine (Matè’s Vineyard Chardonnay at 17.5) from the least expensive (Kumeau Village at 16.5). Keep in mind that top class Burgundies cost between $500 and $1000. Also keep in mind that JR is a very hard marker.
James Suckling and Nick Stock give Matè’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2020 a perfect score of 100 points.
Image source: Cam.Doughlas MS.com
Toolangi Pauls Lane Chardonnay 2019 – $37 the Winepress. Last year’s wine was spoilt by excessive sulphide notes (struck matches) which are the products of ‘reductive’ wine making techniques designed to prevent oxygenation. In the 2019 these characters are reduced and allow the stone fruit and gentle oak to shine . Great length and great style. 96 points.
The Dexter Chardonnay 2019 – $38 at betterbythedozen is vibrant in the usual refined framework, with pitch-perfect balance of white peach fruit, pencil shavings oak and the finest acid. Great depth of flavour and a long finish. A classy Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula. 96 points.
What about Dappled Chardonnay, the star performer from last year? Shaun Crinion didn’t send me a sample, and it seems other reviewers including the Winefront didn’t get one either. Shaun told me it was a tiny vintage that sold out fast. I found some at Cellarspace for $40 a bottle but didn’t buy any since the wine would most likely be gone by the time I reviewed it.
Shaun says ‘the season produced a beautifully fragrant wine with white flowers and citrus aromas with complex grilled hazelnuts, mille-feuille and hints of flint and smoke. The palate is precise and textured with white stone fruit flavours and citrus mineral line. While absolutely delicious now, as I have seen with the 2017’s this wine will blossom with time and patience.’
There are a few bottles of the single vineyard Dappled ‘Champs de Cerises’ Chardonnay 2020 left at fivewayscellars and Wine Decoded, for about $50.
So how is the 2019 Chardonnay fairing? The wine I gave a rave review and 96 points? It’s one of best Aussie Chardonnays I’ve tasted, regardless of price, the complete package with wonderful energy and tension, a wine that shows more class every time I open a bottle. I’d rate it 97 points now. I wish I’d bought more than three 6-packs.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
You can read Part 2 HERE, and Part 1 HERE
