Out Of The Bottle
With David Ellis Domaine Chandon 2010 & 2009 Chortle’s Edge Shiraz
Lilian
Carter wasted no time in making her presence known as Stills Winemaker
when she joined Victoria’s Domaine Chandon at the beginning of 2010
after a six-year stint working in South Australia.
Her 2010
Domaine Chandon Chardonnay that’s just been released is a wonderfully
sophisticated wine that she crafted by blending fruit from the higher
reaches of the Yarra Valley, and which shows predominantly citrus
flavours, with fruit from the Valley floor that’s more stone-fruit
dominated.
The cool-climate Yarra Valley is renowned for its
Chardonnays, and this one has good vibrant flavours from the careful
use of fruit from those differing vineyards, coupled with secondary
roasted spice and toasty characters from an almost-underplayed use of
French oak.
This is a wine you can certainly enjoy now with
seafoods in particular – and Lilian suggests that a particularly nice
match is with a creamy crayfish risotto – or put aside to age nicely in
the cellar over the next five years. Pay $27.95. One For Lunch
After
a 2008 heatwave “vintage from hell” in the Harcourt Valley just south
of Bendigo, 2009 proved far more benevolent – although vines that were
still recovering from the previous year produced crops twenty-five per
cent down on the norm.
For BlackJack Vineyards’ Ian McKenzie and
Ken Pollock it was in fact something of a blessing with their reds in
particular more concentrated in flavour and intensity than usual.
Search
out their 2009 Chortle’s Edge Shiraz, which is absolutely loaded with
ripe plum and dark berry flavours and nice tannins. Pay $18 and whip a
Scotch fillet on the barbie.
Need a drink?
We're archived on vintnews.com
 More Food &
Wine Reviews
|
