Macedon 12.8% Screwcap $42
This is the best Curly Flat Chardonnay since the sublime 2004 release. It’s fresh, mouth-watering, balanced and long.
Nectarine and tangerine dominate ripe grapefruit and white peach with basil adding another dimension to an expressive bouquet. The palate begins with a burst of sweet stone fruit before taking a turn towards orange citrus – never too tangy though. There is already a welcome generosity of flavour (and fruit sweetness) apparent at three years of age.
Superb use of lees and smoky oak, each playing no more than a supporting role. A core of intense minerality becomes increasingly apparent as the wine sweeps gracefully through the mouth.
I’d certainly be looking at this as a cellaring prospect but the fact that it’s drinking so beautifully now may pose problems in and of itself.
Winery website- http://www.curlyflat.com/
Would be very hard not to drink this up as a youngster; so bloody delicious!
sounds like CF thankfully haven't gone all mod-oz lemon juice chardy on us? Not sure why, but I find macedon chard to have the most distinctive flavour profile/texture in the country.
No mod-Oz chardonnay here. I tasted/drank this with Julian and I think we were both pretty thankful for the generosity of fruit flavour and the wider fruit spectrum on show.
It's a funny movement to have gained such traction…if only because so few do it really well – David Bicknell at Oakridge and Timo Mayer come to mind but I think those wines offer a bit more than the "lemon juice" you refer to, and that I tasted in so many Australian Chardonnays over the past week.
Wine as fashion I guess…
cheers,
j