Taste: Gorgeously structured with perfectly integrated fruit and oak, utterly seamless. The nose soars out of the glass with elegantly rendered vanilla, almond, and lemon verbena notes. On the palate, the wine is full bodied but well supported, showing spicy nutmeg, butterscotch, and almond. What’s amazing about this wine is its structure—everything’s in perfect balance. Compare at $30 to $50.
Cameron Confidential: Having fallen in love with Margaret River Chardonnay during our last trip to Australia, I started to poke around the region and see who might want to make some wine for us. One lead in particular led us to an American-owned grower group that—while they had no grapes or wine to sell—did have an ultra-premium concept project of $30 Chardonnay. Unfortunately (for them) it hadn't gotten much retail support—it was bottled in "shiners," would we take it off their hands? We were a bit skeptical of 2004 Chardonnays, but what the heck, we'll try anything.
Glad we did. We were blown away by how these wines had held up, fresh and bright and drinking beautifully. If you have ever had Cullen Chardonnay then you will know what these wines aspire to: low yielding vines from the best blocks, carefully harvested and hand-sorted before gentle crushing. Only free-run juice went into the 50% new, 50% used top-quality French oak for fermentation. The wines were aged 18 months in barrel, and then only the very best barrels were chosen for the final blend.
We have two wines, a small Lot of Margaret River Chardonnay represented here, and a larger production, Lot 97 Chardonnay Western Australia, a regional blend of sub-appellations Manjimup, Blackwood, and others. All of the wines were made in the EXACT same way (including use of new oak and ageing times) to preserve their typicity and make for the best blending components.
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Lot 93 2004 Rioja Tempranillo |
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Lot 110 2007 Los Carneros Pinot Noir |
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Lot 118 2007 Santa Barbara County Viognier |
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Lot 114 2007 Sonoma County Zinfandel |
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Lot 125 2007 Napa Carneros Pinot Noir |
