Hush Heath Skye’s English Chardonnay 2010, Kent, England (£20 hushheath.com) Clean, bright style wine some Chablisque flinty notes, piercing citrus and apple fruit, a touch of nuttiness and a salty mineral tang. B(+) Ocean Eight Verve Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, Australia (~£25 Hallowed Ground) Pure precise style, lightly cooked apple […]
Australian Wine
Tesco Finest* Picpoul de Pinet 2010, Languedoc, France (£7.29 Tesco) Fresh clean style with a bracing marine tang, combines a fleshy peachiness with firmer, tauter apple and citrus flavours, and a leafy finish. B+ Crego e Monaguillo Godello 2011, Monterrei, Spain (£7.95 Saddleworth Wine Vault) Vigorous youngster, initially the pear, […]
Wine Tasting Video: Assorted Whites – Picpoul, Godello, Weissburgunder, Marsanne
Casa Silva Doña Dominga Single Vineyard Syrah 2010, Colchagua Valley, Chile (£7.49 Waitrose) No shortage of plump, plummy sweet berry flesh, but it’s let down by rather obvious wafer-biscuity oak, and while they’ve tried to use reduction (excluding air from winemaking process) to keep some freshness, it hasn’t worked, and […]
Wine Tasting Video: Shiraz-based reds from France, Australia, Chile & ...
Chapel Down Chardonnay 2010, England (~£14 – ’09 is current vintage, but ’10 should be available from chapeldown.com, slurp.co.uk, Majestic) (from vineyards in Kent, Sussex & Essex) Pale and very interesting style, quite bracing, and showing easy yeasty bruised/baked apple flavour with a nutty undercurrent – think Mâcon fruit, Chablis […]
Wine Tasting Video: Chardonnay & Chardonnay/Viognier blends – England, Chile, ...
McWilliams Mount Pleasant Isabelle Chardonnay 2010 Tumbarumba, New South Wales (£9.99 Waitrose) Refreshing, fruity style, a mix of citrus (tangerine/clementine) with stone fruit (apricot/nectarine/plum) with a light veneer of smoky toasty oak, ripe but sleek, with a slightly briny tang on the finish. B+ Thorn Clarke Mount Crawford Chardonnay 2010, […]
Wine Tasting Video: South Australian Chardonnay + a NSW interloper
The Spee’Wah Cuvée Chardonnay NV, Murray Darling (£9.50 The Drinkmonger, Bibendum) Simple, sherbetty style, has a honeyed edge to the cooked apple fruit, quite broad and biscuity, but lacks freshness. C Jansz Tasmania Premium Non Vintage Cuvée (£13.99 see below for stockists) Fresh, elegant style, strawberry, raspberry and apple, with a […]