jamie goode's wine blog: Some post-Christmas whites that work for me, baby!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Some post-Christmas whites that work for me, baby!

Christmas has come and gone, and it was a very good one, Chez Goode. We've spent three days, now, doing the Christmas family thing of walks, meals, games, films and modest excess. I haven't blogged for a few days - I'd have been shot had I got my laptop out on Christmas day, and rightly so. [But I notice that Hugh at gaping void managed a Christmas day blog post, and typically thoughtful and insightful it is too.]

I wanted to take this chance to blog on two rather excellent, and very different, white wines. The first is an amazing dry Riesling; the second a seriously refined Australian Chardonnay.

Kofererhof Riesling Brixner Eisacktaler 2005 Sudtirol, Italy
This mountain wine is technically Italian, but I guess it is probably more Austrian in character. It's a thrilling, intense dry Riesling showing stunning limey, floral aromatics. The palate is mineralic, intense, complex and limey with multidimensional fruit characters, a long, dry finish and bold acidity. I think it's utterly beautiful and quite profound, but with its rather extreme personality, some might find it a bit much. 93/100 (Les Caves de Pyrene £14.25)

Tapanappa 'Etages' Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2006 Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, Australia
Fermented in 70% new oak (Vosges) where it stays for 10 months, and from a cool, dry vintage. This is a concentrated, extremely elegant, ageworthy Australian Chardonnay of real poise. It shows tight, complex, wonderfully lean lemony fruit with some brilliantly integrated fresh vanilla oak. There's massive extract on the palate, which has some minerality, but it avoids being at all rich, fat, or sweet, which immediately sets it apart from most Aussie Chardonnays. This is a wine that will likely develop brilliantly over the next decade: it's starting from an intense, tight-wound platform, which makes it a slightly challenging drink now on its own, without food. I think it's quite profound, and justifies the high price tag. 94/100 (UK retail c. £30, more info from david@lindsay-may.co.uk)

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3 Comments:

At 10:47 PM, Anonymous Grant said...

"but it avoids being at all rich, fat, or sweet, which immediately sets it apart from most Aussie Chardonnays."

Jamie,

Was this written under the cloud of christmas cheer?! If we are talking sub $10 chard I can see a point, but this is a 30 quid wine...what Aussie chards within 15 quid of this are rich, fat and sweet? For me this is one of the most exciting categories coming out of Oz at the moment.

Cheers

Grant

 
At 10:22 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Grant
That's a good point. Maybe I'm being unfair. I have some nice Chards in the tasting line up - Yattarna, Leeuwin, De Bortoli - I should give them a spin.

 
At 8:57 AM, Blogger Nikki Fredsall said...

Looking forward to hearing about them...also intersted in your thoughts on the 06 Marg River Chards if you have opened any.

Cheers

 

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