Ex-Spring Vale winemaker David Cush has moved to Brisbane just in time to enjoy a few summer days with a high of forty degrees Celsius. Who’d want to live in Tasmania? Anyway, I’d say this is more of an autumn than a summer Chardonnay. It’s a big’un, loaded up with praline and cashew oak. Three barriques and one puncheon, all new and French.
Creamy, mealy and toasty with a layer of funk. Ripe, powerful peaches and grapefruit matched to savoury nuttiness. It’s not a flabby wine by any means. Acid and tannin shape it well. Good if not great length and liberal spice. Needs a decant right now and is a few years off showing at its best. Not really my preferred interpretation but well executed. There’s a big market out there for this style and many will lap it up. 91
Region: Tasmania
Alcohol: 13.4%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $40
Tasted: December 2013