This is the second year I’ve been gifted the opportunity to taste the McHenry Hohnen single vineyard Chardonnays together. I’m not as familiar with these sites and names as I am with say, the Giant Steps models in the Yarra Valley, so it feels like I’m in the early stages of pattern recognition.
Looking back at my reviews of the 2011 offerings and it seems I’ve once again found the Calgardup Brook Vineyard version to be my clear favourite. A wine that strikes me as excitingly savoury, nutty, earthy and mealy. Perhaps these characters are brought into greater relief by the sweeter baked pear and melon fruit profile along with the cinnamon counterpoint to savoury pastry and sourdough traits. There’s even a high note of fig which may be a result of a warmer vintage. The interplay of textures and flavours enthrals me such that I’m loathe to talk about techniques but it is wild yeast fermented with 20% of the fruit matured in new French barriques. It took all of a day for that oak to sink in but I never felt it had been overemployed…and I am tasting these as younger wines than I did last year. 95
Region: Margaret River
Alcohol: 13.0%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $39.85
Tasted: February 2014