I’d always thought of Australian Chenin Blanc as light refreshing stuff, not overburdened by complexity & not requiring a great deal of thought. Then I was lucky to receive this pre-release to have a look at, and it shattered my preconceptions pretty quickly.
Ok, so before we get to the wine…The grapes are from 70+ year old vines and the wine sees time in a barrel and some lees work. Halliday reckons that this is part of the reason the 2006 version costs a little more than your standard Oz Chenin, and I don’t think he was that convinced. The 2008 has convinced me and I will certainly be tracking some down once it is available for purchase.
Utterly beguiling nose of spiced apple, lemons, bread and a little bit of cheese. It doesn’t slap you around the head but the aromatics are compelling and insistent. And soft.
The flavours are threaded together by an elegant line of acidity which organises them but never hinders their expression. The entry and mid palate has tangy qualities before it softens for a while as the bread/cheese elements join the fruit flavours. And these are just lees derived suggestions, nothing more. As much textural as in the realm of flavour. An intense minerality drives through the entire palate. It sometimes seems such a cliché to remark on the length of a wine’s finish to me. Yes it’s important, but the repetition that stems from commenting on it in tasting notes can cause me to become quite sleepy. But the finish here is remarkable for its persistence. It’s another indication, along with the intensity of the fruit flavours, that the grapes that went into making this wine were of exceptional quality.
I tasted the first half of this bottle unencumbered. I wanted to revisit the second half with food and I chose simple salmon and avocado sushi rolls, as I thought the fresh, clean flavours would balance well with the weight of the wine and that the intensity and acidity would come into focus when paired with the oils present in the food. I was pretty impressed by how it all worked actually.
I’ll happily call this a new benchmark in Australian Chenin Blanc and look forward to its release.
ps- The bottle image is of the 2006, but I liked the presentation & I want people to be able to recognise the wine if & when it hits the shelves.
Winery Website- http://www.dowiedoole.com.au/