TN: Giaconda Chardonnay 1994

[Neville K]

Bottle variation abounds. Two bottles in the last 6 months: one fully developed; unwound and going nowhere; this bottle tight, pale and undeveloped for its age, but viscous. To borrow an expression from Pritzker Prize winning architect, Glenn Murcutt, this wine is a "6/8ths solution rather than a 3/4 solution." It lacks sufficient acid cut; not attenuated and fine, but round and lovely nonetheless. More in the style of the 97, 98 and 01 Chardonnays, but perhaps lesser. The wine has plateaued, if not on a slight descent, and will not improve. It seems ripe for Giaconda and, atypically, obviously Australian. It lurches from foot to foot like an impatient person in a queue. My final impression is that it is very good, but just a bit donuty compared to its more illustrious younger siblings, esp the brilliant 2000, and the sublime 1996 and 2002.