The breadth of chardonnay styles coming out of Australia’s disparate wine regions continues to interest. After tasting a dozen or so current release chardonnays from various of Australia’s regions from various producers at all sorts of different price points over the last couple of weeks or so, my earlier fear that the pendulum may have swung uniformly from “big and oaky” to “unripe, samey and hard to drink” is happily not being borne out on the evidence. Interesting, nuanced chardonnays appear to be around, with regional characters (and winemaking skill) evident. Happy days.
Little Yering (produced by Yering Station) in the Yarra Valley have managed to produce a very light, yet still enjoyable, chardonnay here from the very difficult 2011 vintage in the region. A pale intensity lemon in colour, the wine has a clean and medium(-) intensity aroma of citrus lemons, complemented by a mineral and chalky character.
On the palate, it is dry, with medium(+) acid, a light body, and very restrained glimmers of lemon citrus with unexpectedly lingering length. The lemon citrus character is most dominant on the palate. This wine is ready to drink now, and presents as a pretty good wine mostly because its primary flavours, while subtle, linger. Acceptable to Good
Abv: 11.5%
Price: $18
Source: sample
Vendors: http://www.yering.com
Website: http://www.yering.com
Tasted: October 2012
Leave a comment