North Sydney Cellars
Tasted Wednesday, September 8, 2010 by chatters with 827 views
Benchmark tasting tour that is run by Voyager Estate. 20 wines over 3 flights - Chardonnay, Shiraz and Bordeaux blends. Attended by the General Manager (Alexandra Wright), Manager of winemaking and viticulture (Steve James) and Winemaker and Winery Manager (Travis Lemm)
The only issues with a tasting like this is that you'll always have vintage variation and some wines are designed to be drunk younger than others. The vintage variation certainly knocked out Burgundy in tasting flight 1 and the ageability of wine probably shot some of the bordeaux blends in flight 3 out.
Cracking evening had by everyone. After each round of the tasting the wine three 'experts' discussed the wines we'd had and at the end there was a three course meal accompanied by the Voyager Estate wines. I had a lovely time but would re-iterate my point about vintage variation and ageability above. In the end I picked up two cases of the Voyager Estate Cab Sav Merlot (which performed a lot better than it had done in Margaret River in April 2010).
2007 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
Nose: Smoked Bacon, Oak, light fruit with tropical notes
Mouth: Acid, spice, alcohol heat, not so much oak on the mouth. Not as much fruit either. Still tastes quite young.
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2007 Craggy Range Chardonnay Les Beaux Cailloux
New Zealand, North Island, Hawke's Bay
Nose: vanilla, coconut, pineapple, very tropical, some spice
Mouth: spice, oak, tongue coating oak and vanilla. Quite hot. Okay
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2007 Voyager Estate Chardonnay
Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River
Nose: touches of elderflower not much else. Under considerable agitation melon and stone fruit show through
Mouth: Medium acid, stone fruit and touches of tropical fruit, also tannin and cream. Okay
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2007 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
Nose: Butter, malo, toast, tropical fruit, honeysuckle
Mouth: Meaty and chunky, plenty of spice, oak, vanilla, coconut and tropical fruit
Absolutely huge and terribly good rambunctious fun.
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2007 Giaconda Chardonnay Estate & Nantua Vineyards
Australia, Victoria, North East, Beechworth
Nose: Touch of greeness/unripe leaf. Stone fruit - nectarine and apricot. touch of smoked bacon
Mouth: Apricot, touch of bitterness, quite dry acidity. Hmm. not for me.
Apparently there is Roussanne in this blend as well.
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2007 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series
Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River
Nose: pineapple, perfume, touch of vanilla
Mouth: spice, dry acid, some oak and little fruit. Bit light. Not working for me.
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