Last night I was enjoying this great weather and got the BBQ warmed up. I cooked up some rosemary chicken (recipe coming this Friday), grilled some vegetables, and on the stove I cooked some risotto. To go with this great meal I picked a Gumdale 2007 Chardonnay. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as the feast I cooked.
I'm not terribly familiar with the wines of Australia, so I don't want to judge all future white wines from Australia by this bottle. But I was displeased by the high acidic flavors of this wine. Perhaps it just needed to mature, but this wine lacked the buttery oak flavors that I love in Chardonnays. I'm fairly certain some of this is due to the fact that it was aged in steel barrels, as opposed to oak barrels.
There were hints of cantaloupe in this very crisp wine. As for the scent, I can only call it a universal fruit aroma. If I was thinking about pear, I smelled pear. If I was thinking about peaches, I smelled peaches. And if I was thinking about strawberries, I smelled strawberries. I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either.
This wine certainly wasn't what I was hoping for. However, it's still young and needs to mature a bit more. Hopefully that will allow the acidic flavors to mellow and a let the fruit from this wine flourish.
Rating: 2/5. Though drinkable, I won't be buying this one any time soon.
Price: I have no idea what the cost of this wine is -- it was a gift.
Wine Info:
Gumdale
2007
Chardonnay
Southeastern Australia
Gumdale Wines- I've sampled several different wines from this producer at free tastings. All of them are in the $7-$9 range and in my opinion over-priced at that. At this price one could find far superior wines from Spain, Chile, or Argentina.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really familiar with the wines from Argentina or Chile... have any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteGreat aromas- Perfect drink this season!
ReplyDelete