I came across an article with this title, written by Adam Liaw. He talks about people who watch 2-hour episodes of Materchef but can’t find the time to cook a meal. Now I like Adam, but this piece is a lot more confusing than his most challenging recipes.

He says we’ve been cooking more than ever during the pandemic, and that we’re tired of it. Then he argues that ‘the dishes we make and the foods we choose to eat aren’t well designed for our modern way of living.’ The result is that cooking a meal takes too long. ‘Even Bolognese is a dish that takes a dozen ingredients and a couple of hours to make properly,’ Adam claims and adds that ‘we’ve lost sight of cooking and eating simply,

I’d go along with that, Adam – just look at Masterchef  – but when you claim that it takes two hours to cook a Bolognese, we’re a long way away from simple cooking and eating, aren’t we.? I don’t like Spag Bol since I find the mouthfeel of minced meat off-putting, but I manage to cook Italian meatballs in 45 minutes, and they’ll blow your socks off. Lots of ingredients for sure, but simple stuff like pesto, red wine, anchovies, bacon or chorizos, canned tomatoes, passata, leeks, peppers, mushrooms, herbs and spices. I use pasta from one or two days before. Shaping the meatballs is the only time-consuming part.

15 MINUTE DINNERS

Thai Red Prawn Curry

There are lots of ways to produce tasty, healthy food with very little time and effort. Here’s a simple example: Last night we came home from a trip, and I felt like an Asian dish. I took some prawns out of the freezer (shelled and deveined), and let them thaw out for half and hour while I unpacked, poured us a beer and turned on the TV to catch the evening news.

Stir-fry dishes are best cooked fast, after you’ve got the ingredients chopped up and lined up. In this case:

• Broccolini, sugar snaps, leek
• Sesame oil, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, red curry paste
• garlic, ginger, lime leaves, lime juice, soy sauce, white wine
• coriander, basil, seasoning

During the virus crisis the price of ginger and Garlic went through the roof, and I discovered the joys of buying these ingredients in a jar: cheaper, more convenient and consistent in quality. So you stir-fry the veggies in a mix of sesame oil and soy sauce for a few minutes, and bring the red curry paste to a simmer in another pan (I always add some wine).

Now you toss the prawns into the stir-fry (make sure you’ve drained off any water), let them fry for a couple of minutes and then add the remaining ingredients, stirring and tasting. My curry turned out too hot, so I added some coconut milk. The final result was more like a Laksa but Tracey called me a genius, which I think means she enjoyed it.

The whole thing took about 20 minutes, and the only ingredients I had to buy were the veggies; everything else was in the larder or the fridge. Could it be any simpler? I doubt it. This is what it looks like

Salmon and buttered veggies

I steam Brussels sprouts, green beans and asparagus for 10 to 15 minutes. When they’ve been on for a couple of minutes, I fry 3 salmon steaks in a mix of butter and olive oil, sprinkled with Thyme and Dill. One of the salmon steaks is for another night, and another dish. We take the veggies off, drain them and add a few scoops of butter. Add seasoning and a squeeze of lemon over the salmon and serve.

Couldn’t be easier. The salt is important in simple meals: we use Vogel’s Herbamare, which you can get from the supermarket. It makes everything a lot more tasty in a subtle way.

Variation 1: replace veggies with a salad

Variation 2: replace salmon with different seafood

Salmon, bacon and spinach pasta

We set the biggest piece of cooked salmon aside for another meal, which uses pasta from a couple of days ago (I cook 250g at a time, it keeps for 4-5 days in a container in the fridge). I fry some bacon with coarsely chopped leeks and a few asparagus spears in olive oil. I stick a decent handful of spinach into a small frypan with some butter for 2-3 minutes, then set it aside.

I add a splash of white wine to the big fry pan, then add the salmon broken into big pieces, add some green pesto (and red if you fancy), Italian herbs and Thyme, plus seasoning. Then we mix 3 – 4 tablespoons of sour cream into the dish and add the spinach. I know it’s sacrilege, but I like to sprinkle parmesan over my seafood pasta.

Variation: use prawns instead of leftover salmon, or use both

Bacon, leek and mushroom pasta

We chop up bacon, leek and mushrooms, fry them in a mixture of butter and olive oil, add rosemary, thyme and chives, toss in some cooked pasta and add the seasoning. If the result is too dry, just add a little more butter and some white wine. Serve with grated cheese. How easy is that?

Chicken & chorizo tray bake

Yes it takes an hour and a half, but the cooking takes 15 minutes – the rest happens in the oven. You can cook enough for 3 meals and just warm up the other 2 when you like. You fry chicken pieces of your choice and chorizo sausage cut into chunks, then bake with chunks of onions and fennel, red and green peppers, potato wedges, in olive oil for 90 mins. Just add a squeeze of lemon, + thyme, Herbamare and black pepper.

These are just a few examples to challenge Adam. There are plenty more in our VERY EASY FOOD section. A couple that spring to mind are Easy Pork in cream, mushroom & mustard sauce & Dead Easy Kassler in soy-ginger-honey glaze.

And then there are our great casseroles: they take 100 minutes to cook (mostly by themselves), but we get 3 and often 4 meals out of a single casserole. We eat one and freeze the others. All you need to do then is thaw them out and warm them up. Could it be easier?

There you go

You’ll find Part One HERE , Part 3 HERE, and Part 4 HERE

Chasing the Best Value / Price Performers

In our study of The Best Aussie Chardonnays of 2020, we found that the serious contenders started at around $50 and went up beyond $100. We also put these prices in perspective by noting that the top white Burgundies sell for 10 times as much as our most expensive contenders. We concluded that Australia is still the lucky country, at least when it comes to wine.

White wine that is. Our top reds sell for close to $1,000, yet our best Chardonnays top out at $150 with Penfolds’ Yattarna if you ignore the $250 Cloudburst which is made in tiny quantities. Other choices with >$100 price tags are Giaconda, Cullen Kevin John, Penfolds Bin A, By Farr GC Cote Vineyard, Leeuwin Estate Art Series, Mount Mary, Xanadu Reserve and Yering Station.

Super Premiums

The question we want to find an answer to is this: how much better is a $120 Chardonnay than a $30 or $40 Chardonnay? One answer to that question is that $120 Chardonnays can be mediocre, unexciting and lacking essential qualities. How would you feel if you’d paid over a hundred dollars for a special Chardonnay, and were as underwhelmed as  these reviewers?

The Xanadu Reserve didn’t excite Campbell Mattinson at The Wine Front. ‘It didn’t scream $110,’ he wrote … ‘It tastes of grapefruit and nectarine for the most part, though white peach and cedarwood are certainly part of its show. It has good flow, balance, length and overall zip, and while it’s well powered it doesn’t have killer intensity, nor the suggestion of it. I’d put it in the class of “upper very good”, if that makes sense, with the assumption that age will be kind. 93+ points.’

The Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay 2017 made about the same impact on Gary Walsh at TWF: ‘One of the more expensive Yarra Valley Chardonnay wines,’ Gary starts. ‘Fine and lean in style, with green apple, almond, a little smoke and bacon. Tight, lemon and apple flavour, almond cream, bracing acidity, and a long cool finish. It doesn’t have a great deal of stuffing, in terms of flavour or weight, but should improve with bottle age. 93+ points.’

Value

As we’ve demonstrated many times, price is not the best guide to quality. Today we’re trying to find a different threshold: how much do you need to spend before you’re in the realm of serious Chardonnays that offer seductive stone fruits integrated with fine oak, lees storage complexity, a creamy texture and the promise to improve with a few years of storage?

We figured we should be able to find a handful of great chardies in the $20 – $30 range, and we were right. In fact a couple of the best are around $20: the Hoddles Creek Yarra Valley twins from 2018 and 2019. I reckon Franco d’Anna is making the best chardies he has in years, and he’s kept the prices user-friendly. A couple of gems further up the price scale round out the selection.

Styles

As I recalled in part 1 of our Search for the Perfect Chardonnay, down under we went from the ripe, peachy, buttery and oaky chardies of the nineties to the lean, austere skin-and-bones style of the naughties. At the same time, white Burgundy went through the ‘Premox’ crisis, which turned $500 bottles into dull brown wines that resembled badly made sherry.

Premature oxidation – also known as ‘the pox’ – became a hotly debated topic, since the cause was a mystery at first. Eventually, it was put down to barrel fermenting, lees stirring and racking (moving wine from one barrel to another). When the wine’s exposure to oxygen is carefully controlled, the wine tends to show more tertiary flavours that add complexity. When the exposure is excessive, oxygenation can occur.

Burgundy makers quickly reduced exposure to oxygenation in their winemaking with inert gas and more sulfur. Predictably this led to ‘reductive’ characters, sulphide notes that make us think of struck matches. Once these were seen as faults in wine, but now they became trendy signs of a funky new style.

This style also tended to avoid the malolactic fermentation that converts malic acid to lactic acid, a process that softens wines and gives them a creamy texture. Jancis Robinson provides more detail on the new style of Chardonnay in ‘Struck-match wines – reductio ad absurdum?’

The Winners

Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2018 – $20 at My Cellars. The 2018 is still out there. It came across as fine and elegant when I tasted it last year, and a bit light on. It has put on some weight since then, showing more white peaches and nuts, more texture, more depth and complexity. The style is still elegant and restrained, but should open up some more over the next 12 months. Classy beyond its modest price tag. 94+ points.

De Iuliis Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2018 – $18 at Cloudwine. A well-made Chardonnay from a top Hunter year, showing a lot of restraint right now. You’d swear this were a cool climate chardy, so elegant is the execution here, so subtle the flavours of peach and melon. There’s just a kiss of oak and a long fine finish. Good tension and great potential, but why not let the fruit ripen just a little more (alc. 12.8%)? 94++points.

Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2019 – $21 at Different Drop or Cloudwine. The 2019 is a beauty of more immediate appeal, bigger and more forward than the 2018, it pretty much leaps out of the glass with creamy white peach and almond notes. The flavour is ripe, round and generous and the subtle oak pretty seamless, but there’s enough length as well and a clean finish. It will improve in the short term, but it’s great drinking already. A joyous wine. 95 points.

Isabel Estate, Chardonnay, Marlborough, 2018 – $28.50 at Dan M’s. The moment I got my nose near the glass, I knew it was my kind of chardy: peaches and nectarines backed by toasted oak with overtones of apricot kernels, notes of oatmeal and yeast, all quite seamless. Medium-bodied (13.5) but full-flavoured. The oak/fruit balance is close to perfect (and will be with another year or 2 in the bottle), and there’s good depth and length with the creamy texture a bonus. 96 points.

Port Phillip Estate Chardonnay 2018 – $30 at Kemenys. We opened a bottle of the 2016 not long ago, and it’s beginning to show its charms. Like good Burgundies, these wines from the Mornington Peninsula take time. They tend to be oaky in their youth, but this fades over a couple of years and gives way to a classic white peaches and cashews style, all with great finesse. Finesse and real class here. 95+ points.

Mountadam High Eden Chardonnay 2016 – $28 at 1^st Choice. I’m a fan of Mountadam chardies as you know. This is their top label, made from the oldest plantings on the estate, fermented in and matured in French oak for around 18 months. It delivers gorgeous stone fruits and nectarines, adds creamy cashews and fine-polished oak. It’s rich and round and bigger than most of the wines on this list (14%), and it’s ready to drink. 95 points.

Dappled Appellation Chardonnay 2019 – $29 at The Vinepress or $30 at Different Drop. Nobody had heard of winemaker Shaun Crinion until he came out on top of James Halliday’s Best New Winery category in the 2018 Companion. He produces about 1000 cases a year, all hand-made, and the eviews have been glowing. Read about the road Shaun travelled to get to this point.

‘It might be the best $30 you can spend in wine right now,’ Campbell Mattinson’s review of the 2018 starts. ‘Beautifully packaged, beautifully styled, beautifully flavoured. Complex, smoky, ripe, flinty, pure and long. It has much going on, but the recommendation is simple. Matchsticks flung in the direction of grapefruit and peaches. A gentle, gentle milky-creaminess. Just so good. 95 points.’

The 2019 shows the same purity, shape and length but is perhaps less complex, with few matchsticks but more peaches and melons than grapefruit. Blanched almonds add a gentle touch. The wine is seamless, and just glides across your tongue like cool, crystal clear water from a rainforest brook. And it lingers long after it’s gone down the hatch, as only the best wines do. Tremendous purity and precision. 96 points.

Oakridge Willowlake Chardonnay 2018 – $30 at Wine Sellers Direct. There’s a nervous and edgy energy here, suggesting the wine needs more time to settle down, but there’s no denying its vitality and aging potential. White peaches and hints of grapefruit, the oak stays in the background, and mineral notes make the long finish more interesting. 95+ points.

Dexter Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2018 – $36 at Summer Hill Wine. Another smooth talker, made by Tod Dexter who has made wine for Stoniers and Yabby Lake. Polished, seamless, round and restrained. White peaches and nectarines, nectarines and cashews from the oak. Some of the fruit went through the malo, but the wine is slippery rather than creamy. Finesse, balance, and great line and length. We’re making some stylish cool climate chardies, aren’t we? I do wish for a bit more flesh and complexity though. 95 points. 

Oakridge Barkala Chardonnay 2018. This wine is pretty much gone unless you want to pay a premium for it. The Henk and the Willowlake Chardonnays are still out there, and they’re very similar. White peaches, pears and grapefruit, supported by oatmeal from the gentle oak. There’s vitality and complexity, finely-judged balance, finesse and great line and length. David Bicknell has his cool climate Chardonnay formula worked out: an underlying tension adds life to the wine, but nothing’s overdone. Will improve for a year or two. 95+ points.

Derwent Estate Chardonnay 2017 – $35 at Kemenys. Still chasing that illusive dream: great chardies that don’t cost and arm and a leg. This one gets 96 points from Huon Hooke and a rave review (at the link). Won the trophy for Best Chardonnay in Hobart 2 years running. 13.5% and all of the wine went through malolactic fermentation.

Impressive fine polish here, and seamless integration of stone fruit, citrus and oak. Real finesse and fine bones, not a hair out of place but left me wishing for a touch more complexity. 95 points. 

Eldorado Road Chardonnay 2018 – $33 at Kemenys. Another rave review from Huon Hooke, and another 96 points – ‘Almost anything you want in a Chardonnay is there.’ Not sure why  I’ve not had many chardies from Beechworth. It’s only 50 kms south-east of Glerowan, but the hills make it much cooler. The winery takes its name from the road to a town called Eldorado.

The fruit for this wine comes from a vineyard that is 550m high. Lots of energy and flavour here, if not complexity, balanced by great purity and precise varietal expression. Stone fruit and cashews plus hints of toasty oak, all the elements work happily together, and the wine is well balanced with a long, fine finish. Another year or 2 will fill it out some more. 95+ points. 

Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay 2018 – $43 at Vintage Cellars (today). Yes we’ve gone over $40 here, but this wine gets rave reviews and I haven’t checked this line for years. It used to be too lean and skinny for my taste, and it’s still far from rich and ripe. That said, it delivers plenty of goodies:

Some struck match notes on the nose, but not enough to strangle the aromas of stone fruit and grapefruit. Peaches, nectarines and grapefruit do the singing, supported by oatmeal and almonds from the oak. Everything is in perfect balance here, the wine is seamless and the fine finish goes on and on. I like a little more body in my chardies, but that’s a minor quibble. Will improve for a couple of years at least. 96 points. Won the trophy for best young white at the 2019 Melbourne Show.

Tyrrells Belford Hunter Chardonnay 2015 – $34 at Kemenys. A delicate, fine-boned Chardonnay that whispers ‘cool climate’ with every sip. A fine example of Chablis, or Tasmanian chardy from a cool year. You’d never pick this as coming from the Hunter, let alone Belford which is known for producing generous whites. Why are Hunter winemakers trying to outdo the cool climate winemakers from down south?

What happened to the idea of wine expressing its origins? That aside, it’s a well-crafted wine in the manner of Dresden china. Since it’s already 5 years old, I can’t see it changing much over the next five. 95 points.

The Disappointments

Toolangi Estate Pauls Lane Chardonnay 2018 – $37 at Kemenys. This is a wine I worked hard to track down, because it gets 2 super reviews from Campbell Mattinson. This is from The Halliday Wine Companion 2020: ‘Crushed and pressed with full solids straight to oak (20% new), both primary and malolactic fermentations going through wild. It’s a wondrous wine. Flinty, direct, pure and authoritative. It tastes of oatmeal, white peach, toffee apple and cedarwood, though everything is cut and freshened by citrus and those struck match notes are stitched into every cranny. The finish, wow, it doesn’t, or not in a hurry. One swallow brings a summer of flavour.’ 98 points.

Given the ‘modest’ price, I thought this might’ve been our giant killer, but I was wrong. Those struck match notes are indeed stitched into every cranny of this chardy, so much so that they kill all the other goodies CM talks about stone dead. Even after 3 days, the reductive lead blanket refused to lift and give us a taste of the goodies underneath. Did I get a bad bottle? Who knows? On this evidence, the wine has a major flaw. Not Rated.

Domaine Naturaliste Artus Margaret River Chardonnay 2018 – $38 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity (promo code BWU20). The fruit comes from the cooler southern end of Margaret River, the wine fermented with wild yeasts and matured in 40% new French oak barriques. Most Chardonnay over here is made from the Gingin (Mendoza) clone, which needs to be picked fully ripe to avoid hen & chicken bunches – plump ripe and small unripe grapes on the same bunch.

The wine was given the royal treatment from wild yeasts to the malo, and spent a year on lees in toasty French oak barrels. That made the wine’s delicacy a surprise, as I expected more flavour and more complexity. The subtle stone fruit sits alongside some grapefruit, backed by mild nutty oak. Bruce Duke clearly wants more finesse in his chardies than I do. It’s just a bit underdone for my taste. 94 points. Not Convinced at the price.

Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2015 – $37 at Kemenys. I expected the secrets Penfolds winemakers had learned from making Yattarna to have trickled down to the lower ranks, and so it was, at least with the oak treatment: Slabs of it overwhelming fairly delicate cold climate fruit from Tumbarumba and similar places. Shame. Will the fruit ever absorb the oak? If it hasn’t done so in the last 5 years, I doubt that it will in the next 5. 92 points.

Brian Croser Chardonnay 2018 – $28 at DM’s. The back label tells us that Brian has always made wines from grapes he grew. I thought he bought in fruit from Cowra and Coonawarra for his early Petaluma wines, but I could be wrong.

The fruit for this wine comes from Geoff Weaver’s vineyard at Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills. It’s a lighter style that pales a bit in this company. Gentle notes of stone fruit and citrus, a whiff of oak, there’s a little more life on the palate but not for long; it’s well-made and well-balanced in a gentle sort of way. 93 points. Not Convinced.

Luke Lambert Crudo Chardonnay 2019 – 26 at Different Drop. This chardie gets an excellent review from the Winefront, which was the reason I bought it. ‘It’s a wine of unique personality and rare sophistication at its price point, and otherwise,’ Gary Walsh sums up. It sure serves up an intriguing blend of fruit, herbs and spices, adds a pinch of salt and a note of struck match funk. Oak takes a backseat, and I think it would’ve been better sitting close to the driver. The wine lacks an essential dimension as a result. 92 points.

Meltwater Marlborough Chardonnay 2018 – $26 at My Wineguy. This is the new ‘entry level’ range from Corofin in Marlborough. The attraction for me was that all the wine went through the malo, so I expected a rich, peachy, buttery chardy. What I got was a curious wine that shows great finesse on opening, followed by a kind of flat spot of flavour on the mid palate. Sea spray and minerals add interest but the wine comes across a little disjointed, the fruit not as vibrant as it should be, and the texture not as creamy as you’d wish. Might’ve been better with some time in new oak. 91 points.

Leeuwin Estate Prelude Chardonnay 2019 – $30 at Dan M’s. Looking for positives, we can talk about finesse and elegance, and crisp lines like new trousers; the downside is lack of flavour, depth, impact, interest and proper Chardonnay notes. It’s not a Chablis style either, it’s just underdone, almost feeble for $30. 90 points for being crisp and clean. Not a bit convinced. Gets 96 from you know who.

Scarborough Yellow Label Chardonnay 2016 – $24 at Vintage Cellars. The website says 2016 but I suspect you’ll find the 2017 on the shelves. This may be a good thing because the 2016 is a major disappointment, a fairly feeble rendition of The Scarborough Wine Co. had reputation for making chardy in the old-fashioned ripe peaches and buttered toast style. No butter or toast to be found here, and more pineapple than peaches. The whole thing is low-voltage and low impact. 88 points.

Howard Park Flint Rock Chardonnay 2018 – $20 at Nicks. This wine impressed me at a trade tasting, and reminded me (when I bought a sample) that trade tastings are not the best environments for assessing wine. The fruit is too sweet, and the wine kind of peters out after the initial burst. The oak tags along with the rest but doesn’t pull its weight … the wine is not seamless and not well-balanced. 89 points.

The Bottom Line

Our Highperfromers were the Dappled Appellation 2019, the Isabel 2018, the Hoddles Creek 2018 & 2019 (different as they are), the Oakridge Willowlake 2018, the El Dorado Road 2018 and the Shaw & Smith 2018 if you can stretch to a little over $40.

You’ll Find PART 3 of our CHARDONNAY ODYSSEY HERE

You can check Part 2 HERE, Part 3 HERE, and Part 4 HERE

The ABC of Chardonnay 

Chardonnay holds a special place among white table wines. Unlike the aromatic varieties – Riesling, Sauvignon Blance, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer – serious Chardonnay is not made to preserve freshness but to  produce savoury complexity. The main reason Chardonnay is so different is that it is made like red wine: fermented and stored in small oak barrels, usually a mix of new and one- or two-year old. Like good reds, Chardonnays tend to improve for years; serious white Burgundies often reach their peak at about 10 years of age.

The story of Chardonnay in Australia reminds me of that Paul McCartney song ‘The Long and Winding Road’. In the eighties, Chardonnay became the trendy new white everybody wanted to drink more of. The most popular style was the big sun-drenched, gutsy kind of chardy full of ripe peaches and as smooth as butter, with toasty oak riding shotgun.

The early naughties saw a backlash in the form of the ABC movement – Anything but Chardonnay. Punters were growing more sophisticated and demanded more finesse in their Chardonnays, and a new generation young gun winemakers was ready to push the pendulum to the other side. The new model was Twiggy, not Jane Mansfield. Some of the wines were mean and lean, anaemic and emaciated, others offered a bad acid trip.

Gunflint and Woodsmoke

Ever so slowly, the pendulum began swinging back toward the middle in the second decade of the new millennium. The biggest obstacle to a return to sanity was the malolactic fermentation, a secondary fermentation that turns mean, green malic acid into the softer lactic acid that gives chardies a creamy texture. The young guns abhorred the buttery chardies of old and tended to avoid ‘the malo’ since it produces diacetyl, the compound responsible.

The malo doesn’t just produce butter and cream, but it also adds complexity. To make their chardies more fascinating, the younger guns used wild yeasts, barrel fermentation and storage on lees combined with batonnage, a French term for  stirring settled lees back into the wine. That only worked up to a point, so in the end most of them came back to the malo, at least for part of the wine. And they retained elegance and finesse by picking fruit earlier.

They also discovered new tricks, such as sulphide notes that make us think of struck matches. These are the result of ‘reductive’ wine making techniques designed to prevent oxygenation. Jancis Robinson provides more detail in ‘Struck-match wines – reductio ad absurdum?’

Squeezing Blood out of Points 

Today we have a bunch of top notch wineries down under making great Chardonnays from the Hunter Valley to Margaret River, great enough to challenge serious Burgundies. Which are the best of these is an obvious question, one that serious reviewers like to take serious stabs at answering.

So why am I having a stab? The same reason as always: to carry out a reality check, and to see if we can find a sweet spot here among these wines with exalted reputations and eye-watering price tags. For our purposes I set the upper limit at $60, which is 3 times our usual benchmark. Of course the law of diminishing returns comes into its own here, so don’t expect a wine 3 times as good as wines costing $20.

The 100 point scale has always been under pressure down under, where anything under 90 points is deemed to be vin ordinaire, and 96 points amounts to a clear winner (by contrast, 84 points is a decent score in America and Europe). Don’t ask me why this is so, coz I don’t know. That said, we’ve found some $15 – $25 chardies that we scored 94 and 95 points. Hoddles Creek comes to mind, and Singlefile, Rosily, Mountadam and Topers – I wish I’d bought more cases of the Topers 2016 at $15.

The Winefront and The James Halliday Chardonnay Competition seem reluctant to go beyond 96 points, which crunches up the point scale even more. James Halliday sets his upper limit at 99, and so does Huon Hooke. However, this post is not about point scores but styles. There are still plenty of anaemic chardies out there, and many of us want to avoid them. I can’t count the number of emails asking me to list full-bodied chardies.

The Chardonnay Olympics

The annual James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge follows the publication of Halliday’s 2020 Wine Companion. To the best of my knowledge, the grand old man of Aussie wine lends his name to the JHCC –now sponsored by Langtons – but not his palate.

The third attempt at classifying Australia’s top Chardonnays comes from the boys at the Winefront, which has published an exhaustive account of a major tasting by the three amigos: Messrs Walsh, Mattinson and Bennie. From what I can make out, a fellow called John Humphrey provided the notes; he describes himself as a Professor and Executive Dean, former M&A Partner in a Global Law Firm, Australian Chardonnay lover and Company Director.

We also consult Huon Hooke along the way, who has beefed up his tasting team to rival Halliday’s. He has no intention to rival Halliday when it comes to overly generous scores, however.

The 3 amigos – photo credit: Milton Worldley

James Halliday’s top list in the Wine Companion is:

• 99 points – Moss Wood Wilyabrup 2017
• 98 – Deviation Road 2017
• 98 – Ochota Barrels Control Voltage 2018
• 98 – Penfolds Reserve Bin A 2017
• 98 – GC by  Farr 2017
• 98 – Evans & Tate Redbrook Reserve 2016
• 98 – Flowstone Queen of the Earth 2016
• 98 – Fraser Gallop Estate Palladian Wilyabrup 2017
• 98 – Leeuwin Estate Art Series 2016
• 98 – Robert Oatley The Pennant 2015
• 98 – Garagiste Terre Maritime 2017 (we are getting sophisticated, no?)
• 98 – Tolpuddle 2017
• 98 – Mount Mary 2017
• 98 – Toolangi Paul’s Lane 2018

What stands out here is that half of these wines don’t appear on any of the other top lists.

The James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge without James Halliday

Let’s start with this massive tasting. The wines are given points out of 100, and medals. Many wines on the long list don’t win medals or scores, which I assume means they didn’t make the cut.

In previous years, many results of the JHCC had me scratching my head, and so it is again this year. Vat 47, once the standard setter others followed, did not score with the 2017 from a brilliant Hunter Valley year, and scored just 90 points for the 2018 (silver medal). The 2018 Belford Chardonnay didn’t score at all.

Silkman Reserve Chardonnays 2017 and 2018 scored bronze medals and 88 points, as did Hoddles Creek Estate 2018 Syberia, and Oakridge Wines 2018 Willowlake Chardonnay. Hard to believe. Bannockburn Vineyards 2018 Chardonnay scored 87 points, Leeuwin Estate’s Art Series 2016 Chardonnay scored 93, and Penfolds 2018 Bin A Chardonnay scored 86 points to scrape in with a bronze. Even harder to believe.

Ray Jorden scored the Leeuwin Estate 99+ points, and Halliday gives it 98 along with the Penfolds Bin A. I thought the Leeuwin Estate was close to perfect but lacked character, like the gorgeous woman you meet at a party who turns out to be a crashing bore. We’re talking $100 Plus wines here that get 20 dollar scores, and there are many more examples of big name chardies that failed to impress the JHCC judges.

The JHCC’s top Chardonnay was Oakridge Wines 2017 864 Funder and Diamond Chardonnay

The Regional Winners were

• 2017 First Creek Winemaker’s Reserve Chardonnay – 95 points
• 2018 Paringa EstateEstate Chardonnay – 95 points
• 2017 Indigo Vineyard Secret Village Chardonnay – 95 points
• 2017 Tolpuddle Vineyard Chardonnay – 96 points
• 2018 Credaro Family Estate1000 Crowns Chardonnay – 96 points
• 2018 Pike and Joyce Wines Kay Reserve Chardonnay – 96 points

The loneliness of the long-distance taster?

Confusion and Consensus

Consensus is almost impossible to find. The JHCC top-scoring Oakridge 864 Funder and Diamond vineyard Chardonnay 2017 also gets a great wrap and the same score of 96 points from the 3 amigos at TWF. It fails to make the Wine Companion’s top 14, and Huon Hooke scores the Oakridge 864 at 97 points – a point short of making his top 98-pointers which are:

• By Farr Cote Vineyard Chardonnay 2017
• Giaconda 2017
• Leeuwin Estate 2017
• Mount Mary 2017
• Tapanappa Tiers 2017
• Tarrawarra Reserve 2017

97 points

• Oakridge 864 Funder and Diamond 2017
• Silkman Silk 2017
• By Farr Cote Vineyard Chardonnay 2018
• Howard Park Allingham 2018
• Soumah Equilibrio Hexham 2018

The first 5 wines that Huon scored 98 points are also on TWF’s top list, so we have some agreement here. The TWF report mentions that the amigos have now agreed amongst themselves that the best Chardonnays in Australia come from the Yarra Valley. It’s curious then that neither JH nor HH have any Yarra Valley chardies on their top lists. It’s also curious that so few of the chardies on these lists come from Margaret River.

John Humphrey’s TWF review at the link below covers a lot of ground in great detail, and the description of the wines some way down is an exacting style guide for each of the candidates. The top wines of the 3 amigos in the blind tasting were

97 Points

• Giaconda Chardonnay 2017
• Hutton Triptych Reserve Chardonnay 2018,
• Joshua Cooper Captains Creek Chardonnay 2017

96+ points

• Pierro Vintage Reserve Chardonnay 2015
• By Farr GC Cote Vineyard Chardonnay 2017
• Joshua Cooper Captains Creek Chardonnay 2018
• Fraser Gallop Palladian Chardonnay 2017
• Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2016

96 points

• Sorrenberg Chardonnay 2017
• Murdoch Hill ‘The Rocket’ Chardonnay 2018
• Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay 2017
• Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2017
• Bindi Quartz Chardonnay 2018
• Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2017
• Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2017
• Bindi Quartz Chardonnay 2017,
• Liger-Belair Corton Charlemagne “Les Languettes” 2016
• Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2017
• Shy Susan Chardonnay 2016
• Bobar Royale 2018
• Oakridge 864 Funder & Diamond Drive Block Chardonnay 2017

How do we Compare with Burgundy?

The 3 amigos had a Liger-Belair Corton Charlemagne “Les Languettes” 2016 in their tasting, as a benchmark I assume. John Humphrey said, ‘ … it was a good wine but I wasn’t blown away by it (as I was when I tried a 2017 Jadot Montrachet a couple of months ago) … it exhibited some nuance and detail in combination with nice balance but lacked the intensity to clearly differentiate it from the pack.’

To give some perspective to this comment, I should add that the Corton comes with a $500 price tag, and the Montrachet with a $1000+ sticker. Makes our $100 chardies look like genuine bargains, no? A dozen years ago, many Burgundy lovers found that their prized Chardonnays suffered from premature oxidation (premox) despite the stratospheric prices they’d paid for them. Yes, hard to believe: 5-year old Grand Cru Chardonnays turned brown and tasting like Sherry. In 2010, many Burgundies were spoilt by botrytis, and in 2011 the Brits told their Burgundy lovers that they’d be better off drinking Australian Chardonnay. Fair dinkum.

This is what Pierre Mansour form the UK’s Wine Society told fellow Brits attending an Australian Chardonnay tasting: ‘ … with the [premature oxidation] issues [white] Burgundy has had in recent years, I’d urge Decanter readers to look to Australia – these wines are brilliant.’ The ‘premox’ issue has tarnished the reputation of expensive white Burgundies for over a decade now, yet neither the cause nor the extent of the damage are clear – check the gory details Here.

The Lucky Country

What is clear is that Australian Chardonnay has entered a golden age, a time when our best winemakers are totally focused on making the best Chardonnays they can, without pushing their prices up into the clouds as happened in California. So now is the time to enjoy the fruits of their painstaking work.

Emma Symington MW summed up an AGM tasting put on by the Institute of Masters of Wine this way: ‘For me, and others I talked to, the tasting more than demonstrated Australia’s credentials as a producer of world-class Chardonnay. Where once there would have been lashings of tropical fruit, now there isn’t a pineapple in sight. Instead lemon, peach and apple form the ripe fruit core of the wines, surrounded by layers of mealy oak – occasionally smoky, but never buttery – all wrapped up with bright, zesty (and, importantly, natural) acidity. Indigenous yeast and high solids ferments certainly lent a funky, textural edge to many wines and the reductive, struck match note on some wines added a controversial element, splitting opinion in the room. But this just served to underscore how far Australia has come from the ‘sunshine in a glass’ one-size-fits-all type of Chardonnay. Instead there were wines to suit all palates and all occasions.’

The Sweet Spot – Our Picks

There are all kinds of anomalies to ponder here, but let’s see if we can find some gems among all the confusion. Please note that some of the top-listed wines above have sold out, since I’m a bit late out of the blocks with this post.

Oakridge Wines 864 Funder and Diamond Chardonnay 2017 – $60 at Winestar. This wine shows tensile energy along with plenty of restraint. It walks the fine line between fruity and savoury to perfection, with stone fruit held in check by grapefruit and classy oak. The vitality, depth and intensity mark this a special wine, but it needs a couple more years for all the elements to sit together in harmony, and will last for many more. 97+ points.

Flametree SRS Chardonnay 2017 – $54 at Dan M’s. Barrel fermented in 35% new French puncheons and aged for 10 months, with lees stirring. 20% of the barrels went through the malo. I haven’t tried this vintage and I can’t find a review for it, hard to fathom given the bling the wine has amassed:

• Trophy for the Best Western Australia Chardonnay International Wine Challenge 2019
• Gold, 95 pts – International Wine Challenge 2019
• Consistency of Excellence award – Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2018
• Gold – Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2018
• Gold – Sydney Royal Wine Show 2018
• Gold – Perth Royal Wine Awards 2018
• Gold – Royal Adelaide Wine Show 2018
• Gold – Wine Show of Western Australia 2018
• 97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion 2020
• 97 Points – Ray Jordan, West Weekend

Pike & Joyce The Kay Reserve Chardonnay 2017 – $50 at Winesquare. This is a joint venture between the Pike brothers from Clare and the Joyce family who planted the vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. I don’t know the wine but the brothers are veteran winemakers, and they’ve wowed the show judges with their vibrant Chardonnays. Regional Winner and 96 points at the JHCC 2019

Shy Susan Chardonnay 2016 -$50 at Australian Wine Centre. Made by veteran winemaker Glenn James who says: “I was the first to put Tasmanian chardonnay into Eileen Hardy, and the first to put Tasmanian fruit into Yattarna.”  The winery is Halliday’s Best New Winery of 2020.

I don’t know this Tasmanian chardy but CM at TWF loves it: ‘Cedarwood, cream, melon, white peach. Milky chardonnay. Long chardonnay, mellifluous chardonnay. Add these together and you have yourself a sensational wine. Laced with fennel, ever so gorgeously textured, a long sail of flavour to close. I took one sniff, one sip, and did not require any further convincing. 96 points.’

Deep Woods Reserve Chardonnay 2017 – $49 at Settlers Liquor. This wine appeared on none of the lists above, but it scored scored 98 points in a Decanter tasting of Chardonnays. The judges – Sarah Ahmed, Roger Jones and Anthony Rose – were impressed with the ‘coolness and verve’ of the 2017 Reserve, calling it ‘very Margaret River … a fabulous wine with great potential’. Down under, the Deep Woods 2017 won 2  trophies and 6 gold medals and scored 96 points from Ray Jordan. Very hard to find now, but Gary at TWF scored the 2018 a point higher than the 2017 – 95 vs 94 – and you can buy it at the Summer Hill Wine Shop for $45.

Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay 2018 – $43 at Kemenys. This wine has many fans, but I’ve found it too lean, too modern with not enough meat on the bones.  So I haven’t bought it for a few years. Now Campbell at TWF  tells us that ‘It’s come a long way over the years.  I like my flint and funk but when I first opened this it was alarming. It was a matchbox factory. Some chardonnays need a decant and a wait. Give this time and it shows both power and poise, its grapefruit, custard apple and stone fruit flavours woven expertly with cedar, oatmeal, almond milk and matches. It has a quartz-like aspect, a bristle to its brilliance. It’s narrow but it’s not lean; there’s more than enough power to its fruit. It should drink quite sensationally, from appropriate glassware, in another 2-4 years. 96 points

Greywacke Marlborough Chardonnay – $43 at Our Cellar. Winemaker Kevin Judd spent 25 years making wines at Cloudy Bay, and 10 years ago started making great wines under this label. The style is rich and round and creamy (14%), with ripe peaches, polished oak, some citrus notes and struck match funk. The fruit is hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed before fermentation with indigenous yeasts in French oak (20%). Judd used lees stirring and full malolactic fermentation to make a vibrant, complex wine that will please most chardy lovers. 95+ points.

Tarrawarra Reserve Chardonnay 2017 – $42 at MyCellars. I haven’t tried the 2017, but I know winemaker Clare Halloran and Huon Hooke both like Dresden China chardies. In Clare’s hands, they can be sublime. Huon says ‘ … It really blossomed in the glass. The wine is lemony, citrusy, hazelnutty, honeyed, taut and refined on palate. It’s very light on its feet; a super-refined, utterly gorgeous chardonnay of real complexity and finesse. 98 Points.’

Burton McMahon George’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2018 – $34 at My Wine Guy. This could well be the joker in the pack. Came among the top wines in a Gourmet Traveller Chardonnay tasting. Huon Hooke’s review goes ‘Light-to-mid yellow colour, the aromas creamy lees-tinged and fresh, the palate restrained and fresh, tight and delicate but with excellent intensity and length. Lemon, butter, nectarine and grapefruit notes. Subtle oak, but it’s already quite complex. Long, long finish. Lovely refinement and harmony. Extraordinary value! 96 points.

Greywacke vineyard, lower Brancott Valley, Marlborough. Image Source: Kevin Judd

Why it’s so Hard to pick Winners

Different wine crtitics can come up with very different assessments as the examples below underscore, and there are may more.

Deviation Road Chardonnay 2017 – $45 at MyCellars.  This wine found a place in Halliday’s WC top 14 Chardonnays, with a score of 98 points. Ned Goodwin calls it a ‘stunning chardonnay’ that offers nutty warmth and ‘plenty of flavour, with nectarine and peach in the back seat, riding shotgun to nougat, toasted hazelnut and creamy cashew flavours. Very fine. Stunning length and intensity. Kerpow!’

Huon Hooke calls it crisp and lively, a low alcohol style, gives it 90 points and suggests it would make a good base for a sparkling wine. Given these diverse reviews, I’m not inclined to buy a sample. We strike a similar clash of views with the Evans & Tate Redbrook Reserve Chardonnay 2016, which scores 98 points in the WC, and 92 at the Real Review. This is a $69 Chardonnay.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Chardonnay, so does Tracey. We drink more Chardonnay than any other wine style. As I write this, I’m sipping a Leo Buring Clare Valley Dry Riesling 2015, a museum release I bought for $17 a bottle a few weeks ago, and one of the best white wines I’ve tasted in the last 12 months. That’s a simple reminder that there are other great wine styles we make down under, and some of them are much better v alue.

HAPPY HUNTING

KIM

Part 2 of this series is HERE

And are easy on the pocket

Toilet paper and pasta are scarce but we can still buy wine online and have it delivered. Finding the best wines and the best deals for our subscribers is all we do at Best Wines Under $20, and we add live links to our recommendations so you can order online from the merchant offering the lowest price. Easy as.

We do this with our BEST BUYS WEEKLY mailer, which is just $20 a year. $30 a year adds access to the archive of Best Buys Weekly mailers, and to our wine reviews. Check the subscription options and read what our subscribers say.

Here’s a short list to show you the quality of wines we track down, at super-sharp prices

White Wine

Cleanskins No 34 Margaret River Chardonnay 2018 – $8.50 at Dan M’s. A slick effort, quite refined for this price level. Hints of stone fruits and cashews, not profound or complex but smooth, easy every-day drinking. 91 points.

Rapaura Springs Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019 – $8.50 at 1^st Choice. It’s from a relatively new winery trying to build market share with aggressive pricing – good for us. Crisp and grassy, with the tropical fruit held well in check. I bought stacks of this as a drinking savvy at this price since we eat a lot of seafood. It leaves many savvies costing twice as much looking really ordinary. Grab some while the price is right. 92+ points.

Vidal Marlborough Chardonnay 2018 – $13 at Our Cellar. The fruit does the driving here, with oak taking the back seat. Classic blend of stone fruits and almond meal. Easy as … Lively crowd pleaser at a great price. 92 points.

Dopff Au Moulin Pinot Blanc 2018 – $14 at Dan M’s. A variety that deserves to be more popular. Apple blossom, apples and pears with hints of spice and blanched almonds, all pretty subtle but high on the drinkability scale, and even higher on the value scale. 93 points.

1960 Mountadam Old Vine Ridge Block Chardonnay 2015 – Still on special for $15 at Kemenys, and getting better with age. More savoury than the 2016, it has a full, round palate with notes of almond meal and French oak. Great with veal schnitzel. 95 points.

West Cape Howe Old School Chardonnay 2018 – $16 at Summer Hill Wine or $17 at Nicks. Not as old school as I expected – not all that peachy or buttery – but a good chardy for sure. Fermented and matured in French oak, and gone through malolactic fermentation which makes for a rich, round chardy with a creamy texture. Good line and length, and thecrisp finish keeps it all tidy. The price is right too, so we have a winner all round. 94 points.

Leo Buring Clare Valley Riesling 2015 Museum Release – $17 at Vintage Cellars. this is a cracker, a near perfect 5 year-old Clare Riesling, made by Peter Munro somewhere in the bowels of Treasury Wine Estates. 2015 was a really hot year, yet this wine has a fine, long line of acid that supports the classic florals, limes and bath powder.
It shows no hints of kero or toast or honey yet, in fact it’s still crisp and crunchy but richer and fuller than its younger siblings. The precision and linearity of this Riesling are exceptional, and so is the value. Will live for a long time. 95+ points.

Hoddles Creek Estate Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2018 – $20 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers (promo code BWU20). I tried this wine 6 months ago; it made me think of a jazz combo that made all the right noises, yet the music lacked excitement. This time there was more to admire, but it is a subtle wine and you need to listen carefully; then you’ll discover some lovely nuances among the stone fruits and cashews. If it keeps growing in the bottle, it’ll hit perfect pitch in a year or two. 95 points. This was a recent Wine of the Week.

Leconfield Coonawarra Chardonnay 2018 – $20 at Winedirect. Classic chardy showing elegant restraint, along with white peaches and blanched almonds, plus creamy texture from some lees stirring and malolactic fermentation. Polished. 93 points. Please note – Winedirect has put together a special dozen of this chardy and added a great Barossa red

2018 Oakridge Willowlake Vineyard Chardonnay – $29 at My Wine Guy. These Oakridge Single Vineyard wines are serious bargains. The style is clearly modern but there’s more to it than Twiggy and the grapefruit diet. Classic stonefruits and cashews here, and so much more: almonds, spices, intensity of flavour, tension and creamy texture. A tad richer than usual for Oakridge. 96 points.

Reds

Luccarelli Puglia Negroamaro 2018 – $14 at Wine Sellers Direct. Very similar to the Primitivo, medium-bodied with dark berries and spices, dried herbs and dark chocolate Has a little more concentration and should improve for a couple of years. Terrific value. 93 points.

Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola 2016 – $16 at Our Cellar. I’n not a big fan of this variety, the main red grape of Sicily, but this one has more to it than most. It’s ripe and fleshy with good depth of flavour; it serves up dark cherries with a pinch of dust, it’s medium-bodied and light on its feet. I scored it 92 points. In Gourmet Traveller Wine’s Italian tasting, it scored 93 points and 7^th place ahead of wines costing 50 dollars. Serious bargain.

Guigal Cote-du-Rhone 2015 – $19 at Kemenys. 2015 was a bumper year in the south of France, so even modest wines like these tend to have more depth and weight than usual. I reckon this wine will even improve for 2 – 3 more years. 93+ points.

Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Shiraz 2016 – $19 at Boccaccio in Melbourne. From the Clare Valley, from a mature vineyard 480m high. Terrific purple colour and the vibrant fruit that cool climate Shiraz can produce, in a medium-bodied frame (13.6). Sweet red berry fruit, some spice but not much pepper, oak takes a backseat, hard to put down but the superb balance suggests it will improve for years. 95 points.

Penny’s Hill Cracking Black Shiraz 2015 — $20 at Winesquare. Similar in style to the wine of the week, but a tad bigger reflecting the year. More Shiraz notes as well, pepper and spice and all things nice including French oak. McLaren Vale Shiraz in a tux. 94 points.

Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 – $20 at Nicks. Bargain Cabernet from a first class winery in Margaret River. Classic cassis fruit polished with pencil shavings oak, good line and length, good drinking already but will improve for a few years. Nicks’ review at the link is spot on. 95 points.

Xanadu DJL Shiraz, Margaret River 2015 – $23 at Winesquare. I know I’ve raved about this wine before, and wondered why we can still buy it. That’s our gain, because it is an absolute cracker, and for once I’m on the same page with James Halliday whose review you can read at the link. Shiraz has spent too many years in the shadow of Cabernet in Margaret River. Drinkability is off the charts. 96 points, and the wine is ready to enjoy.

Wynns Coonawarra Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 (Cellar Release) – $35 at Winestar. Absolute cracker, the best release in the last dozen years, more complex than most, beautiful drinking now and for the next ten years. For special occasions. 97 points.

Rosé

Lovers Not Toreadors Rosé 2019 – $14 at Dan M’s. From Spain obviously, comes in a great package, and the wine is pretty decent as well. Vibrant and flavoursome, charming and slippery. The vintage on the website is out of date. 92 points.

Richard Hamilton Gida Rose 2019 – $15 at Winedirect. Straight up-and-down, no nonsense Rosé, from one of our oldest wineries. Walks the perfect line between perfumed attraction and cool execution. Not a hair out of place. 93 points.

Leconfield ‘La Sevillana’ Coonawarra Merlot Rosé 2019 – $23 at Laithwaite’s.  Best Rose I’ve tasted in a year or more, pure, refined, elegant with great line and length. Made from Merlot – pure genius. Rosé for adults. 95 points.

SPARKLING

Redbank Emily King Valley Brut Cuvee – $11 at Our Cellar. This is no time for celebration but, when the time comes, this is a crisp and lively bubbly from the King Valley will sparkle. It’s one of the many labels in the Hill Smith Family Vineyards portfolio. 91 points.

Deutz Marlborough Cuvee NV – $20 at Winestar. This wine impressed me years ago as a serious option, and it has improved over the years since. The price has gone up with the quality, but it’s still a bargain. Check the reviews at the link. 95 points.

DESERT WINES

De Bortoli Deen Vat 5 Botrytis Semillon 375ml 2016 – $13 at Summer Hill Wine. Then little brother of The Noble One, and the 2016 is brilliant. Luscious with all the trimmings of marmalade and orange peel, apricots and honey. Super value. 95 points.

Morris Rutherglen Classic Liqueur Topaque (Tokay) 500ml – $18 at Nicks. Very comforting on a cold night in front of the fire, with some nuts and dark chocolate: marmalade, toffee, raisins, honey and a whiff cold tea. 94 points. Bargain

Yalumba Antique Muscat (375ml) – $20 at Nicks. More comfort food! Terrific Muscat but very hard to find. Nicks’ review at the link is right on the money. 95 points.

The obvious question: what took so long?

A friend in the business said it was a train wreck a looooong time coming.

I agree, and here’s why: How many insurmountable opportunities can a company squander and survive?

QUALITY

In the years between Maurice O’Shea and Jim Chatto, they made mostly ordinary wines from some of the best vineyards in the Hunter.

GROWTH STRATEGY

None that is evident. Random acquisitions meant they ended up with a grab-bag of vineyards and labels

BRANDING

No sign of it, just a vast array of diverse labels, totally different styles, no family resemblance, no umbrella to provide cohesion, just a huge mess. Random harvest. And they keep adding more labels https://mcwilliams.com.au/inspired-by-the-iconic-stories-of-the-mcwilliams-family/

MARKETING

A disaster, but how do you market such an unholy mess of products?

MANAGEMENT

Took 2 years to finalise the Evans & Tate acquisition. 10 years later they sold most of it to Fogarty – does anyone at McW remember why they bought it in the first place? Half the labels have been sold at deep discounts for the last decade, probably losing a pile of money.That’s why

That’s why I’m surprised it’s taken this long for McW to run into trouble. They never defined a clear value proposition, or articulated what they stood for, what they did better than others. Trying to be everything to everybody is no business strategy.

A guest post by Vin Keller

(Episode One – ADVENTURES IN A GLASS of MALBEC)

So there became a problem of my own making – I was enjoying Malbec and Malbec blends. They could be sought from outlets without much trouble. There seemed to be plenty of other varietals and blends available, and different winemaking districts began to be represented. But that was the 1960s.

Leap forward into the 1970s. Something had changed. Starting with a jolt in the very late 1960s, a revolution began in the Oz world of wine. Initially, there was real pressure to produce more and more red grapes (especially), and the growers and processors were really caught out wondering just how a massive and sudden revolutionary demand for, particularly, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz wines, or blends of these two, could be sourced. This revolution came right of the blue, and this astonishing demand kept right on accelerating for at least three decades, it appears.

The revolution’s down-side – simply, several white varieties began to vanish, and certain red varieties that had been very useful to date as varietals or blenders, were also on the nose (bad pun). Some of these included Mataro, Mondeuse, Blue Imperial (Cinsaut), Grenache, Alicante Bourchet, as well as a number of fringe red grapes. Sadly for me, Malbec was one of those, and wines for my interest began to be seen much less often on the shelves.

This truly dramatic narrowing of focus on what was being produced was caused by a minimum of two influences – first, several of the traditional wine producers were simply taken over by the cashed-up commercial invaders, some of which not previously involved in wine production – it was a take-over boom.

Second, there was a parallel socialised drinking revolution whereby those recently converted to the art of enjoying wine were suddenly either (or both) experts in oenology, or were heavily drugged by the new phenomenon of wine writing in journals and the dailies. At the top of this latter pile was the great Leonard Paul Evans, an escapee from Britain and New Zealand, who arrived just in time to make sense of the whole event for us through his knowledge, daring, ability, and down-to-Earth delivery. He was the Leader of the times, and many such as myself owe him a real debt.

Len was arguably the one most responsible for arresting, for example, our newly acquired habit of racing down to the corner grog shop and ordering several dozen of this or that, just because Bill’s uncle’s best mate’s sister-in-law had heard somewhere that a certain wine was a steal, or that you’d be a mug if you didn’t buy a few cases.  Gradually, Len’s clever and informative articles of caring and accurate advice and experiences began to have us think about what we were actually doing. So, instead of being headless chooks, we took that unrewarding rush to be first, to be more like choosing a painting. To his great credit, Len never instructed us on taste, but gave us the idea that we should develop our palates progressively by trying more and better wines. The up-side of the revolution – nationally, we had begun to think about wine. Beer and Sherry were consigned to the back seat.

Of course, Len Evans did support Cabernet and Shiraz based wines, as well as a quite biased Hunter region fan, but he was quick to point out that our very competent Australian wineries produced many stylish and beautifully-made products from those two grapes alone, not that he was unfair about other varieties – perhaps just less effusive. But he also produced several books which thoroughly covered the industry at that time, and many updates on the progress. He wrote about winemakers, wineries and their Australian history, and of course, detailed notes on each wineries products. These were the Bibles of their time; many fine wine writers have emerged from Len’s sunlight since.

But what of Malbec?  By the mid-1990s, a proportion of the “lesser” varietals such as those listed above were grubbed out in the rush to meet the swing to “important” varietals, while the remaining proportion from bearing vines was used for anonymous blending purposes –  laws allowed producers to state only the major components on the label.

I will write about Malbec and its continuing journey to the present time in Oz in Episode Three.

Cheers – Vin Keller.

The Wine Folly’s Guide to Malbec

Our Top List – Hand-Picked

Wolf Blass Red Label Chardonnay Pinot Noir Premium Cuvee NV – $6 at Dan M’s. A clever blend that is surprisingly drinkable; crisp, lively, soft and well balanced. This was bubbles champ Tyson Stelzer’s Sparkling Wine of the Year under $20 in recent years. Check his review at the link. I don’t think it’s quite that good, but at this price you can splash it around with gay abandon. 89 points.

Azahara Chardonnay Pinot Noir Sparkling – $10 at Nicks This is a wine that breaks stereotypes. There’s not only nothing cheap and nasty about it but it’s actually smooth, creamy and enjoyable. I recommended this wine to friends looking for a $10 bubbly for a big party, and they were over the moon. Five years later they shared one of the leftover bottles with me, and it was even better. 90 points.

Redbank Emily Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut Cuvee NV – $11 at Kemenys. This is a label from the Hill Smith Family Vineyards stable, the fruit from the King Valley in the Victorian Alps. A cool bubbly from a cool climate, the crisp crunch balanced by some faint toasty notes. 91 points

De Bortoli Rococo Premium Cuvée – $12 at Winestar. This is a good cool climate bubbly (Yarra Valley) with an outrageous label, and I have no idea why it’s so cheap. Grab some while it lasts – check the raves at the link.

Jacob’s Creek Prosecco Spritz – $14 at Dan M’s (today). Prosecco infused with blood orange, botanicals and a twist of bitters. These additions sure lift the flavour and add interest, while the package makes a statement of its own. It’s a very smart blend that would please large crowds. 92 points.

Cave de Lugne Cremant Blanc de Blancs NV – $15 at 1^st Choice. That co-op strikes again. Cremant styles have fewer bubbles. 100% Chardonnay Hints of lemon and flowers on the nose, crisp, creamy and round, biscuity characters add interest. 92 points.

Santa Margherita Prosecco Di Valdobbiadene – $16 at Dan M’s (member special – today) A great  Prosecco for the money, and I have no idea why they’re cutting the price. It’s perfectly balanced and not too sweet at 9 grams of sugar. Great mousse, fresh & zippy, perfect spritz for summer lunches. 93 points.

Deutz Marlborough Cuvee Nv – $18 at Kemenys. This has been one my favourite under $20 bubblies for years, but it’s become really hard to find. Here’s Huon Hooke’s take on it: ‘It’s creamy-textured and silky-soft in the mouth, with a clean finish. Drinkability is very good. Great intensity, richness and extra length. It’s deceptively easygoing and soft. Excellent wine and very, very drinkable. And it doesn’t taste like Marlborough. 95 points.’

Brown Brothers Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier – $20 at Nicks. It’s made from King Valley grapes these days, but the style hasn’t changed much. It’s always been an understated bubbly, a harmonious blend with no rough edges, the kind of wine that doesn’t make a splash but by the second glass it makes you think: hey, this is a pretty decent bubbly. 93 points.

Aubert Et Fils Brut Champagne – $22 at Dan M’s. Champagne for $20? Yes, but don’t get too excited. It’s OK for the money, and useful for impressing guests (who are not champagne aficionados). There’s nothing wrong with the wine, but it’s fruit-driven and simple, and the bubbles aren’t super fine. That said, it’s a decent glass of bubbly. 91 points.

A by Arras Premium Cuvée NV – $22 at Dan M’s. Even the entry level bubbly from the House of Arras is close to the champagne style. It’s obviously spent some time on yeast lees. The fruit is in the apple and citrus spectrum, but it’s not green. 94 points.

Pirie Sparkling NV – $27 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity (promo code BWU20). This has long been a favourite of ours, in such a classy package.Check the raves at the link.

Georg Jensen Hallmark Cuvee NV – $27.50 at First Choice. Gorgeous, elegant bottle with a GJ designed reusable metal stopper that sits on a crown seal – great gift idea. The wine is made by Heemskerk in Tassie, and is cool-climate elegant, fresh and crisp with a twist of grapefruit, but it’s not about the wine here. 93 points.

Quartz Reef Methode Traditionnelle NV – $30 at Kemenys. ‘Insanely good drinking,’ says Mike Bennie whose score is 95 points; his review is at the link.

Pink Bubbles

Taltarni Brut Taché – $14 at Dan M’s (member special – today). Taltarni established this label almost 25 years ago, and has built up a loyal following. It’s a serious bubbly this, dry and savoury with just the right touch of blush and red berry fruit.

Chandon Brut Rosé – $21 at Dan M’s. Salmon pink color. Biscuits and lemons on the nose. Palaate is gently fruity with a dry, mellow finish. Classy drinking. 93 points

Ninth Island Sparkling Rosé NV – $22 at Gasworks Cellar Door. Pale, beautiful salmon-pink hue; the aromas fresh and attractive with strawberry and red-fruit scents. The palate is rich and fruity, with balanced sweetness and a trace of grip. Icing sugar; almond icing. Lovely wine with poise and grace. 93 points.

Sparkling Reds

The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz – $16 at Nicks. Mc:aren Vale Shiraz at its best. Sumptuous, seductive, irresistible. Christmas pudding in a bottle. 93 points.

Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz NV – $19 at Dan M’s. Top Gold at the Sydney Wine Show last year
(95 Points) – Royal Sydney Wine Show 2018, and Tyson Stelzer’s Sparkling Wine of the Year Under $30. Plums, cherries, Christmas spices and pepper in a vibrant, creamy envelope. 94 Points. No serious competition at this price.

The Best Buys, Hand-picked

This list is getting away from our usual price range and, for most of us, these are special occasion wines. For Christmas or birthdays, to share or to give to special people, rewards for special favours and so on.

The entry price into this club is about $40 – that’s the kind of money you have to spend to get a champagne which shows the character of this area in France, and some of the style these wines are admired for.  Differences in style reflect the site the grapes come from, and the house styles of the major champagne producers.

There are grand old houses, small estates, and grower co-ops. In Australia, we mostly see the wines from the big houses: Veuve Cliquot, Pol Roger, Laurent Perrier, Moet, Lanson, Mumm and so on.  Most of us don’t buy these wines very often, so we tend to gravitate toward the safe, well-known brands.

Non Vintage champagnes are blends of different vineyards and vintages; champagne blending is an art form in a sphere of its own. Vintage champagnes are from a single year, still blended from many different parcels. Only about 5% of champagne production is vintage champagne, and only 3 – 4 vintages a decade are good enough.

Vintage champagne is not always better than NV, since the vintage year can turn out less grand than expected, while the Non Vintage offers the blenders more options to smooth the wrinkles and maintain the house style. Vintage champagne tends to be 8 to 12 years old, since these wines spend 6 – 8 years on lees. The result is more complexity.

Prices for champagnes vary enormously in Australia, but as usual we’ve dug up the best wines at the best prices.  As a rule, vintage wines, blanc de blancs (made from Chardonnay) and Rosés sell at a premium. The next level up above $200 is the home of fancy labels such as Dom Perignon and Krug, and special bottling like Roederer Crystal, Cuvee Winston Churchill and so on.

I don’t drink champagne every week, so I’ve consulted the wine reviewers who focus on these wine styles to get the latest insights.

Non Vintage

Louis Auger Champagne Brut – $30 at Dan M’s. Sharp price for a champagne, and Huon Hooke’s take is pretty positive: ‘Light yellow hue. A discreet, fresh style with aromas of iced pastries and a delicate but quite rich flavour. It has a generous dosage (sugar), but is balanced, soft and fluffy textured. Very good wine. 92 points.

Piper Heidsieck NV  – $40 at Kemenys. Tyson Stelzer says this is too good to hand over to friends or family as a Chrissie gift. Under the guidance of Regis Camus, this house has really lifted its game, and its champagnes are excellent value as a result. Even their humble NV stands out.

Veuve Fourny Grande Reserve Brut Vertus Premier Cru NV – $55 at Kemenys. A lesser known, smaller house that is highly regarded by both C Mattinson and Huon Hooke. Check their reviews at the link. Sharp price.

Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Champagne NV – $60 at Dan M’s. This is one of the largest houses, still family-owned and run by two sisters (women seem to feature large in champagne). Huon Hooke scores the wine 94 points, and says: ‘This replaces the old Brut LP. It had 4 years on lees instead of 3, has more chardonnay – 55% – and lower dosage. No taille, only cuvée, hence the name. A superb wine, outstanding for such a large maker and for the ‘workhorse’ wine of such a big house. Very creamy. Hints of peach and toast. A lovely soft, rich, full-flavoured but also refined wine.’

Alfred Gratien Brut NV – $68 at Jim’s Cellars. Alfred Gratien is a small producer, making about 300,000 bottles a year. Huon Hooke describes a ‘complex bouquet revealing some barrel-fermentation as well as age development. Very attractive and very nutty. The palate is intense and dry, an incisive, penetrating flavour powered by good acidity (non-malo). It’s rich, powerful and dramatic, really fills the mouth and lasts long on the aftertaste. Seldom does one see such concentration in an NV Champagne! Superb wine, dry but not austere – the finish is tremendous. This is an example of how oak can be used in a positive way. 97 points.

Blancs de Blanc, Vintage and Rosé

Lanson Gold Label Vintage Brut 2005 – $70 at Dan M’s (today). Huon Hooke’s review says: ‘Quite youthful colour. Lovely toasty bouquet, bready, bakery aromas abounding. Rich, complex and lip-smacking dry finish. Excellent wine, very long, the acidity cleansing the finish superbly. This is bright, fresh and youthful and has a way to go. 95 points

Piper Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage NV  – $63 at First Choice. I thought we’d better have one of these on the list, even though I’m not a great fan of Rosé in this style. You often pay a lot extra for the added blush and the fancy box. That’s not the case here: Pinot Noir does most of the talking in this full-bodied, full-flavoured pink champagne. It’s almost a sparkling red Burgundy with raspberries and forest notes,  a great food wine that will stand up to salmon in soy marinade and even Peking duck. 94 points.

Piper Heidsieck Vintage 2008 – $70 at Kemenys. I managed to get a few bottles of this at Dan M’s for $63, would you believe? A good friend who really knows his champagnes tells me that 2008 is the vintage of this century so far. Under the guidance of cellarmaster Régis Camus, who has won the International Wine Challenge Sparkling Winemaker of the Year award 8 times, this house has found new form and vitality. This is a rich, generous champagne, toasty and full-bodied with great line and length, that will last and improve for years. 96 points.

Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Cuvee Cuis 1er Cru Blanc de Blancs Champagne – $70 at Nicks. Tyson Stelzer calls this wine ‘one of the most pristine champagnes for its price. Impeccable phenolic maturity … it sings with crystalline purity of lemon blossom, lemon juice and grapefruit, and an almond nut maturity providing a sense of dimension. Gentle chalk minerality and beautifully integrated dosage linger with outstanding persistence. 93 points.’

AR Lenoble Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut 2008 – $80 at Kemenys. 100% Chardonnay from a single vineyard near the Grand Cru village of Chouilly. Tyson Stelzer calls this ‘an elegant and complex champagne with yellow apples, honey melon, toast and brioche. A rich mouthfeel, tiny persistent mousse with a smooth and long finish. This is a champagne that will work well with lobsters and crab. 95 points.’ It sells for $120 and more at other merchants.

Veuve Clicquot Vintage Champagne 2008 –$99 at Nicks. ‘The clear bargain of all the champagnes tasted this year,’ says James Halliday, ‘reflecting the great vintage and the vinification revolution by chief winemaker Dominique Demarville. Brioche, nutty oak and peach blossom all whisper in the spring breeze of the bouquet before the stone and citrus fruits of the vibrant palate rise to a crescendo on the finish. 96 points.