so on Friday night 11 of us gathered upstairs at The Bishop in Surry Hills for 'The #OMB Chardonnay Challenge - Part 2, The Finals'. A link to the Heats a few weeks ago here ... [url]http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16156[/url]
I'm a self confessed Chardonnay tragic, I love it. So many styles, not all of them do it for me, but I can usually find ways to appreciate everything from funky Jura acidmeisters through to big fat malo buttery old school Californians, even if I prefer the former style to the latter! So once a year, I now host a Chardonnay Challenge, bringing together regular favourites of mine against the winners of the heats, plus some highly rated newcomers and a few established legends. The focus is mainly on Australia and New Zealand, but there's always a few others here and there, plus a couple of white burgs for a world view balance (and because they taste good!). This year my new crew #OMB (One More Bottle) formed most of the attendees, with a few friends and GrapeMates along for the ride.
The format this year was 4 wines per flight, 4 flights. Wines chilled a bit and decanted for 30-60 mins. Order was randomised and wines served single blind (i.e overall lineup was known, but NOT the serving order). The wines were then mixed up further by someone else in each flight to give me some kind of blind tasting as well (so I knew the wines in each flight but not the order). Just like the heats, the event was a lot of fun, it's a truly great space with excellent food upstairs in the private area at The Bishop. Highly recommended for organised wine tastings, groups, functions or just a meal & a glass or two of wine downstairs. All attendees were experienced tasters with both a love of Chardonnay and an appreciation of comparative tastings.
In addition to rating each flight with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th favourite, we also gave the wine a score out of 20 to ensure the overall preferences on the night weren't just biased by each flight's results. Last time a wine scored 4th in a flight for everyone, giving it zero points, but it was in the middle of the pack in terms of overall preference on the night, so this additional 20 point score served as a benchmark against other wines in other flights on the night. Why 20 points? Why not, points mean very little anyway, wine is so subjective. Attendees were directed to choose their own range for scoring, from 1 to 20, or from 15 to 19, or anything in between, doesn't matter, it's all about sorting the most popular wines, not whether it's a so called '96 pointer' or not. If there's one thing I've learnt in wine, it's that one persons 97 point wine can easily be anothers 88 pointer. Acid, oak, fruit, age... we all like different balances of them. There is always consensus to be had here and there, a truly great wine often has very few in disagreement! But one thing I expected to say at the end of this tasting was that we all have different tastes, they were all very good wines, and yes that is true, but the favourite wine on the night was unanimous!
We started with a modest but solid Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon Macon-Villages 2015 off The Bishop wine list while waiting for the later arrivals, then once all were present, we kicked off with a fascinating and delicious David Leclapart Champagne. The nose was a touch brown appley for my taste, but on the palate it was complex, layered, vibrant and very long indeed. Made a real impression on me, despite not loving the nose.
The lineup and winners in order were as follows, based on overall points (out of 220, not that it's relevant).
(The extra score in brackets is the votes taken per flight score - 3Pts for 1st, 2Pts for 2nd, 1Pt for 3rd)
Winner
193 Pts - Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay 2016 (33 inc 11 x 1st !)
Runner Up
180 Pts - Penfolds Bin 15A Chardonnay (26 inc 5 x 1st)
Then in order 3rd to 16th.....
177 Pts - Sorrenberg Chardonnay 2017 (20 inc 4 x 1st)
173 Pts - Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2016 (22 inc 4 x 1st)
170 Pts - Lake’s Folly Chardonnay 2017 (20 inc 5 x 1st)
170 Pts - Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2017 (18 inc 7 x 2nd)
170 Pts - Bouchard Meursault-Genevrieres 1er Cru 2016 (14 inc 2 x 1st, 2 x 2nd)
167 Pts - Giaconda Chardonnay 2016 (23 inc 5 x 1st)
162 Pts - Kumeu River Mate’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2013 (18 inc 1 x 1st, 6 x 2nd)
158 Pts - Holyman Chardonnay 2015 (15 inc 1 x 1st, 4 x 2nd)
158 Pts - Mount Mary Chardonnay 2016 (12 inc 4 x 2nd)
158 Pts - Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2014 (6 = 3 x 2nd)
157 Pts - A. Rodda Willow Lake Vineyard Chardonnay 2017 (11 inc 2 x 1st, 2 x 2nd)
149 Pts - PYCM Saint-Aubin La Pucelle 2014 (18 inc 4 x 1st)
144 Pts - B. Leroux Puligny-Mont 1er Cru Champ Gain 2014 (5 inc 2 x 2nd)
128 Pts - Bindi Quartz Chardonnay 2017 (3 = 3 x 3rd)
Tarrington Chardonnay 2016 - Duh. Eliminated due to serious #fucork TCA fault (Bouchard was the replacement).
The flights and brief flight notes were...
Flight 1
Mount Mary 16
Cullen KJ 17
Tapanappa Tiers 16
Bindi Quartz 17
(Tapanappa the clear winner, with all voting it 1st in the flight. Cullen KJ was also highly rated. Mount Mary and especially the Bindi just swamped by the sheer excellence of the first two.)
Flight 2
PYCM St-A La Pucelle 14
Kumeu Hunting Hill 16
A. Rodda Willowlake 17
Holyman 15
(Didn't show as strong a flight as flight 1which surprised me a bit. Opinions quite spread out here)
Flight 3
Giaconda 16
Kumeu Mate's 13
Lakes Folly 17
Leroux P-M Champ Gain 14
(Quality flight overall, depended on taste here, the Folly was lean and more citrus, the Giaconda oakier and more powerful. A bit of palate fatigue hit around here too, with no Krug forthcoming we ordered a round of beer, which really helped freshen the palate!! For those taking their time, going back to this flight after the beer was like chalk and cheese, with palate feeling much more enlivened and refocused)
Flight 4
Sorrenberg 17
LEAS 14
Bin 15A
Bouchard Meursault-Gen 16
(Even blind the LEAS was easy to pick, old school big oak style, good quality wine though, but not my fav style. Like it did in the heats, the Sorrenberg showed very well, the Bin 15A was also an oaky style but it's very well integrated and the wine very impressive. I put the Bouchard a close 2nd to the Sorrenberg personally.)
While I was adding up the scores (which took a while!!), I missed most of the reds, but there was a Tyrrell's Old Patch 2017, a Tyrrell's Vat 9 2010, a Redman Claret 1973 and a Bowen Estate 1980. No doubt someone can put up some notes on those!
Overall Comments
Chardonnay was the winner on the day, played a blinder from kickoff to the final siren, full credit to all, they all played their hearts out, nothing left on the table, everyone stepped up, so proud of this lot.
You get the jist, they are all excellent wines, and the likes of Bindi and A. Rodda can hold their heads high, even if they didn't do that well on the night. So much of tasting is about context, what a wine is shown next to, the food, the time of night as well as about individual tastes. The cream of the crop did shine brightly though, the Tapanappa Tiers 16 immediately stood up and said, 'hey check me out, I'm all class'. Throughout the night people were searching for the next 'Number Three', but nothing else ever quite had the same impact. 'Gotta be white burg', said a couple of the Tiers...
Just a few personal select (blind) notes on a few of the wines.... FWIW.
Tapanappa Tiers 2016 - "Sea spray, tangy, fresh, touch of subtle popcorn at the finish, Very Good. 18/20".
Bindi Quartz 2017 - "Jasmine, peach, talc, icing sugar, good but a bit awkward compared to others in the flight 14/20" (I reckon the translation is it's too young and needs time!!)
Kumeu River Hunting Hill 2016 - "Nice balance, personality a bit reticent but solid and well composed 16/20" (= too young! I love Kumeu but always say they need 4-5 years minimum age - yes it was me who put two Kumeu's in the lineup!)
PYCM Saint-Aubin La Pucelle 2014 - "Subtle Jura-esque saline tang and a long juicy acid line. I really like this. Yum 17/20" (you can see I love acid, and minimal oak
Holyman 2015 - "Bit too much popcorn? Slightly OTT somehow, feels like it needs more time 13/20" (wow, I LOVED this wine last time I had it in 2018 - it's all about context eh)
Giaconda 2016 - "Bitey acid, quite lean and yet a good whack of nutty oak. Touch of % heat noticeable. OK. 15?" (I marked it up to 17 in the end after the glass of beer palate refresher.)
B. Leroux M-P 1er Champ Gain 2014 - "Odd to start, really sorted itself out by the last sip, oaky style, fresh acid line, really needs time. Long finish. Burg? 17/20" (it had 45 mins or so in the decanter, should have been 2 hours. Thanks to Greg for sacrificing this very rare wine to the cause ~ 450 bottles made!).
Sorrenberg 2017 - "Really good overall wine, excellent acid, not oaky, decent length, Yum. Burg? 19/20" (say no more, it's good.)
Leeuwin Art Series 2014 - "Oaky! But I don't mind the caramel popcorn buttery oak in this context of good winemaking with great fruit. Has length, but so reliant on the oak for it's power. Not my style so much. Gotta be LEAS. 13/20" (Be great to try this in 10-15 years of course, that's where LEAS can swallow that oak and really shine, esp now under screwcap)
Bouchard Meursault-Genevrieres 1er 2016 - "Bitey acid, not trying too hard, and not needing to either. Composed itself quickly in the glass, quality factor high here, Like it a lot. 18/20" (This, the Hunting Hill, Cullen, PYCM, Sorrenberg and of course the Tapanappa were my favourites on the night)
Final thoughts
* It's always fun and informative organising event like this, seeing the results and hearing the various opinions. What better excuse to enjoy a large variety of excellent Chardonnay!
* Results are interesting, but I feel any of these wines could have shown differently, with a different ordering, or on a different night (OK, maybe not the Leeuwin - it remains stubbornly stylistically itself!
) * Higher end White Burgundy remains king for me still, a good Chevalier-Montrachet or Meursault-Perrieres from a good producer is still head and shoulders above anything in this lineup. But of course those wines are very expensive, plus premox and cork variability does make it unfeasible for regular drinking and/or cellaring for all but those with the deepest wallets. Yet we see here that thrilling Chardonnay can be had from the New World, that's for sure. Quality is going up and up, screw cap is a reliable and proven seal (despite some stubborn opinions to the contrary), prices remain fair, the future for Chardonnay lovers is very bright. I raise a delicious glass to that!
Cheers
Tim
[img]http://www.grapemates.org/files/TimMiscStuf ... ium%29.JPG[/img]
[img]http://www.grapemates.org/files/TimMiscStuf ... ium%29.jpg[/img]
I think the ABC trend came about after too many excessively oaked, massive malo butterbombs tired peoples enjoyment and they were searching for a more crisp, refreshing white wine experience. Along came NZ Savvy and boom, ABC. Good luck with your old bottles, if there's one thing the big oaked Aussie Chard's of old need, it's time. Sadly corks were so crap back then... but when they're on, wow. A Tyrell's Vat 47 1994 comes to mind as excellent, as does Yattarna from 98 or 00. It's a lottery, but a fun one if you get a good bottle!
