Margaret River 14.5% Screwcap $29 Source: Sample
Fire Gully is a sister winery to Pierro and the wines are made by the same team. I enjoy Pierro Chardonnay and appreciate the specific house style it offers whilst maintaining regionality, so I was keen to have a look at this.
The ABV gives you some idea of what you are in store for (not that I’m suggesting that you should judge a wine by numbers). Half the grapes were fermented in French oak barriques and underwent malo. The rest went straight into stainless steel tanks. It’s big and buttery with just a little warmth. Plenty of palate weight too.
Powerful peach, grapefruit and pineapple with a little melon, cashew and cream. Seasoned oak is present but it’s more than matched by the potency of the fruit. The wine makes its mark on entry and through the mid-palate but wanes on the finish, losing intensity and shape. Spice is left to linger lonesomely. The line is broken near the end.
It’s certainly not a bad wine, and I suspect some people wish there were more of these ‘bigger’ Chardonnays around but it doesn’t really come together. At a lower price point I might be less critical, but there’s a lot of good Chardonnays of all styles at around or under the $30 mark.
Winery website- http://www.firegully.com.au/
Couldn't agree more JP. Some of the descriptors are a bit different but this pretty much sounds EXACTLY like the wine I drunk last night.
Good work
The Pierro is obviously a lot better but i think for a wine under $30 its really good value. There are a lot of people out there who don't like the full oak and full malo, me being one of them. The bouquet is fragrant but unlike the Pierro It's crisp with just a hint of that butter from the barrel ferment. I agree with you on the peach grapefruit and melon characteristics you described. I found this for $25 at my local bottle shop in South Perth the other day and served chilled on a Saturday i was a big fan.
Anon- As I wrote, it's not a bad wine. I looked at it with a chill and more towards cellar temperature. Certainly less buttery when
chilled, but that's not the way I generally serve Chardonnay.
Value is one of the most subjective things in wine. Maybe even more so than quality. I'm glad you found it both enjoyable and agreeable in terms of price. For the style, I would personally look elsewhere..but it's a more complex issue than is often acknowledged.