My new favourite game

I'm not sure why but the wine adventurer voice in my head is getting more vociferous. Shopping for wine is always a pleasure but it's getting to be something of an extreme sport also... I can't go past the challenge of a bin end sale and I keep coming home with wine I know nothing about or wine, as in this case, that could be well past its prime. The Wirra Wirra Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2002 at only $21.00 could have been a disaster waiting to happen. Inexpensive Chardonnay from the New World doesn't have a great track record for aging well and the buttery monsters that Australia has been famous for producing tend to go flabby and 'old fridge' in no time flat; even acres of new oak can't keep all that butter from splitting. Still, the cool climate of the Adelaide hills region does produce some of the more elegant wine coming out of Australia.

Deep yellow gold with an aroma of marmalade on hot buttered toast. I felt like a hint of 'old fridge' was hiding underneath the orange zest but then it was gone and I haven't found it since. The palate is layered. Charred caramel and wholemeal. Ripe grapefruit and last of the summer nectarine. Tobacco flower and a leesy almost yoghurt like creaminess at the heart of the wine flowing around a wild funkiness (10% indigenous yeast). So grown up and definitely not overgrown it finishes with caraway spice. Mellow, ample, supple and distinct.

AND this got better and better the more I let it sit in the glass. It loved being room temperature and just kept giving. (Jeez I'm waxing lyrical I know but I'm falling in love with what I thought was a mistake, or perhaps I'm drinking too fast).

Told

I've just been prompted by Rich to note this wine down and I don't blame him really. We've enjoyed the Villa Maria Keltern Chardonnay 2004 a number of times over the years. One wet night in Rotorua stands out ( and that was back in 2006 when the wine was fairly young). The 'Keltern' is like a glowing beacon that proves just how good Villla Maria wines can be. Everything, from their standard supermarket range to the elite single vineyard wines (of which Keltern is one) is consistent and well made with occasional flashes of brilliance.

We lucked onto this bottle in the same bin-end sale that offered up the Pinot Blanc and it was "everything and more". The notes are slim but evocative..

Mersault-like almond on the nose. Figs on the palate. With tingling acidity and blow-you-away baking spice.

A very short description of a very evolved, complex wine and utter proof that Nu Zillund can make gorgeous Chardonnay that doesn't tend towards 'old fridge'.

The Anthropomorphising of Wine

Increasingly I'm referring to the wines that I try in very human terms and I wonder if this is more or less confusing than recipes of fruit.

Some opinions on the topic of wine-speak would be welcome.

But rather than dwell on this here is a wine that we snuck out of the supermarket feeling very lucky to have nabbed a Te Kairanga Chardonnay 2004 for the same price as the more recent vintage. Supermarkets are good like that, having no knowledge of the aging wine being better..... Still you run the gauntlet of heat and flourescent lighting having got to it before you did.

On opening it all seemed fine throwing up really grilled nuts and savoury stonefruit. But then I started wonedring if that 'savoury' smell was just plain old or nice. So I tried again and got dried apricot and cereal on the nose. The wine was a really deep yellow gold in the glass and the palate still refreshingly rich, the oak not prominant but definitely there in the the texture of the wine and sensation of cloves in the mix.

"Perhaps we should have chosen the younger wine instead of this vintage" is still crossing my mind as I start being overwhelmed by Old Fridge. This aroma seems to be unique to Chardonnay and was first identified in relation to the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay 1999 when we tried that last year. We're presumming that its unique old butter in the fridge-y smell has something to do with the malo falling over, but we're not sure of this. In the Cloudy Bay we decided we liked the smell but I'm still not sure if I find it savoury and interesting or just nasty.

I perservered anyway (well I was drinking the wine not clinically tasting it) and decided the palate was like warm straw and fig. Definitely quite developed but still giving up some fun flavours. Perhaps out of balance with too much age and not enough vivacity.