I was watching Wine Library TV a few nights ago and Gary Vaynerchuk did a blind tasting of Chardonnay, so, gaining inspiration from this, I decided to do one myself. Five wines, range of prices, range of countries, one glass and a spittoon. Go!Wine A Quite a golden colour. A bit of oak, some honey and some pineapple tinged with wood sap. Some spicy element too. The palate is nice, well balanced, some fruit skin, more pineapple, a bit of white pepper and just a touch of cream. A bit of oak kicking in but nicely finished with good acidity. 8/10
Wine B Light, touch of oak, some lemon and a little alcohol kicking in on the nose. Palate is light, crisp with a bit of zingy, zesty fruit – more citrus than tropical fruit. A lot of minerally elements and a bit of sea salt. Not bad but a bit meh on the finish. 7/10
Wine C Lemon washing up liquid. A bit of cream and a bit of herby, basil aromas. Palate is a bit fierce. Some fat flavours, very unbalanced – one minute nice fruit, next minute harsh alcohol and wood. Just is a bit crude. 5.5/10
Wine D Nice, balanced oak, softly delivered with the mange tout and perfumy fruit aromas. Some sweet melon aroma mixed with a bit of pepper. The palate is a touch young, some firm alcohol grips you. Some nice pepper with fruit being a little masked by the wood. You can tell this is a good wine, but there is a little lull on the finish. Overall though, a nice wine. 7.5/10
Wine E Perfumy. Lots of sweet fruit, melon, pineapple, very fresh. Smells a bit like lemon Opal Fruits/Starbursts. Palate is not good. It is thin, lots of zingy, unpleasant, fruit, no balance whatsoever with a criminally thin palate and a long finish. There are elements of chalk coming through but seriously, how can this be considered good wine? 4/10
Upon finding out the products
Wine A 2006 Hamilton Russell Chardonnay: Well worth the money you are paying. A great wine from South Africa, highly rated by critics. Really good.
Wine B 2007 Bourgogne Les Setilles, Olivier Leflaive: Disappointing showing from this wine. Granted, that could be the vintage, but it should be, and in past vintages has been, better.
Wine C 2006 Adamas Bourgogne Chardonnay: Sorry Dan! This really didn’t perform that well. Should be better for a 2006 vintage.
Wine D 2005 Puligny Montrachet Etienne Sauzet: A wine that is good, but as I said, just a bit thin and needing time to develop.
Wine E 2004 Antinori Castello della Sala Chardonnay. Horrific. For a wine of twenty odd quid it should be MASSIVELY better.
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