2016 Pierro Chardonnay Margaret River
Community Tasting Note
forceberry wrote:
Monday, November 7, 2022 - 100% Chardonnay sourced from five different vineyards in Wilyabrup, planted mainly (90%) to the Gingin clone and averaging 30 years old. The fruit is harvested in multiple tries, based on its degree of ripeness. Whole bunch pressed, fermented and aged for 12 months in French oak barriques. 13,5% alcohol.
Quite pale yellow-green color. The nose is still surprisingly primary with candied fermentation aromas of pear and gummi bear candies, some crunchy notes of greencurrants, light vegetal notes of herbal spices, light steely mineral notes, a hint of greengage and a touch of exotic fruit. The wine is ripe, youthful and very fruit-forward on the palate with a moderately full body and slightly primary flavors of juicy citrus fruits and fresh apples, some steely mineral notes, a little bit of greengage, light candied notes of pear drops and gummi bear, oaky hints of nuttiness and toasty spices and a mineral touch of wet rocks. The high acidity lends good sense of balance and structure to the wine. The finish is lively, fresh and quite long with a clean and rather fruity aftertaste of steely minerality, some sweet tropical fruits, a little bit of stony minerality, light zesty citrus notes, a candied hint of gummi bear and a nutty touch of chopped almonds.
A pleasant and balanced Margaret River Chardonnay that comes across as surprisingly primary and candied in character, considering the wine is already more than 6 years old. There's quite a bit of substance and intensity here, promising quite a bit of potential for future evolution, but at the moment the wine feels a bit too candied and fruit-driven for my taste, coming across as a crowdpleaser fruit bomb - despite its mineral overtones and good sense of zippy acidity. I honestly hope the wine would lose its exuberant, candied character with additional aging. The fruit intensity and sense of structure here was on par with some of the best wines we tasted in a tasting of a dozen Chardonnays, but the very estery, exuberant fruit character made the wine feel a bit banal in comparison with the more restrained, fine-tuned and complex bottlings. In our Western Australia tasting of 12 Chardonnays the wine gained a total of 4 points, making it finish on the 4th place.
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3 comments have been posted
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Comment posted by Mhbeaune:
2/13/2023 2:51:00 AM - About 10 years ago ‘I discovered’ this wine whilst staying at TheCape Lodge. Different vintage so beautiful with food my wife and I had it 2 nights running followed each night by a mature vintage of Cullen, Diane Madeline. Wonderful to compare the 2 different vintages of Cullen.
Maybe the Pierro’s exuberance is better suited to a meal rather than a ‘tasting’ ?
Comment posted by forceberry:
3/1/2023 4:11:00 AM - Maybe, but I myself often prefer more restrained wines as food wines, as they tend to give more room for the food - and in the best cases a great pairing can coax out something interesting from a wine made in a more understated style - whereas more exuberant wines tend to be better on their own and usually a food pairing either tends to muddle or mute the expressive qualities or they may clash with the food.
Comment posted by Mhbeaune:
3/1/2023 5:10:00 AM - point very well made. My personal preferance for Chardonnay is as you say restrained and very delicate oak if any.