Thought I might break things up with a “live” tasting note. I’m sitting at the computer pottering away at a few different tasks, listening to José González’s “Heartbeats” and having a look at a Hunter Chardonnay. Real world conditions, for sure. Maybe not for the lab coat crowd, but I’m not really about that.
Really, really bright gold colour here. Looks developed, but the first sip delivers something different to the expectations that arise from looking at the wine. To, me a wine’s colour is another part of what it has to offer sensually. Sometimes it’s indicative of how the wine will taste, other times it is misleading. It can tell you a bit about the wine’s age but it seldom accounts for quality. Mostly it just adds another layer of enjoyment. So that’s why I mention it so often. Enjoyment is what I like to come back to at all points. Out of enjoyment or suffering, all questions are born. Questions which in turn lead to more pleasure or pain in as much as we can separate these complex and entwined entities.
Extremely zippy fresh cut lemon on entry with some white peach quickly leading us towards a tight mid palate experience. The lemon then returns with some sour grapefruit as the wine narrows further. I’ve very little experience with Hunter Chardonnay. I thought it would be full of sweet tropicals, but I’m not getting much of that here. Lemons and minerality seem to define most of the experience. The French Oak is clearly evident and a little out of whack to be honest. But it is a young wine and the fruit seems intense, so it should balance over a bit of time.
As the wine is opening up, 20 minutes from when this note started, the unripe peach is becoming more evident and the line is broadening in a pleasant way. Some spicy qualities are emerging too. Oh, I’m onto González’s “Lovestain” now. The finish is still coiled and it gives the sense of being attenuated because of it. There is a fair bit of acidity at play here. No malo either, just some lees to soften the blow. But enough lees to allow one to enjoy the more bitey lemon and zest that ride challengingly through the palate.
Now, at the 45 minute mark we have white flowers (honeysuckle) amalgamating with the lemon, further softening and sweetening its expression. I’m finding more joy in this wine now. It is still challenging, but the challenge seems more worthwhile.
And I think I’ll leave the note on that last sentence and with the last sip of my first glass. I hope the experiment has been as interesting to read as it was to write.
Winery Website- http://www.tyrrells.com.au/
Love the live tasting note Jeremy – I can't help but think of that 08 Gulf Station I drunk the other day because of it.
As a friend was over I gave the GS the old '15 minutes in decanter then return to bottle' initially, after which the wine seemed a little hard edged and certainly overpowered by sour acids. We were both saying yes, this is a $15 pinot, but I said, hey, be patient, and made us sit on it for another hour. At that point the wine had integrated a hell of a lot better in terms of flavour, texture and acid – leading to my rather positive review.
Did you also find variation in this wine from temperature warming? We've had about a week worth of 39 deg. days in Adelaide and it's amazing how quickly a white wine, served at fridge temp, warms up (even in an air-conditioned room), altering the whole experience quite dramatically, and quickly. It's definitely not a good time to be a 'slow' white drinker (like my girlfriend) – maybe I should stop serving her all these cheap wines!
Cheers,
Chris P
Thanks Chris
I think your experience reviewing the GS Pinot adds to the whole idea that there is tremendous worth in giving a wine a fair bit of time (even 2-3 days sometimes) before one makes an assessment of it.
Of course some wines tell you about themselves more rapidly than others, and sometimes it is just not practically feasible to taste over that length of time.
The other argument that could be made is that the consumer isn't generally going to taste over 2 days, so maybe a briefer tasting is of more use to them? I have no real answer, but I find the ideas of interest as not too many wines remain static over time.
As for the temperature question, I absolutely think the wine showed variation as it warmed up. It's hard to seperate the amount of variation caused by exposure to oxygen vs exposure to heat (It isn't as hot here as I've heard it is in Adelaide, but it ain't cool!). So even a temporal note based on one glass throws up all sorts of problematics.
Serve your girlfriend some heavily salted food with that cheap wine. That should hurry her along
Cheers
j
Nice note Jeremy and coincidently Im listening to José González's cover of Massive Attack's Teardrop right now… radness.
Dave
Cheers Dave
Love that Massive Attack cover. He's very good live if you get the chance to see him. Incredible right hand technique and finger picking patterns. As a flat picker I wouldn't even try most of his stuff
cheers
j