1997 Penfolds Chardonnay Yattarna

Community Tasting Notes (13) Avg Score: 91.7 points

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  9/2/2023 - bowesmana wrote: flawed

  This one of the 3 bottles I had was too oxidised and was like vinegar

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  12/9/2022 - bowesmana Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Deep gold, the wine is developed.
  Medium intensity on the most, butterscotch, ripe rock melon and cream. Honey and sweet honeysuckle. Some vanilla and a bit of orange marmalade.
  
  The wine is dry and still had medium+ acidity, medium alcohol,. It has medium body and medium flavour intensity.
  
  The palate is marmalade, overripe apricot and rock melon. Some dried fruits and honey.
  
  It had a medium+ finish
  
  The wine has balance 1, length .5, intensity .5 and complexity ,5. The wine is very good.
  
  Drink now, not suitable for further ageing
  
  Perfect with a double brie

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  7/5/2014 - JerM wrote: 96 Points

  (MidWinter Brunner:Truffles+Wagyu+TextBookWines) Dark, toffee in glass, honey and beeswax on the nose, with toasted walnut, and nutty soy. Similar poise to the 1997 Rosemount, but deeper and richer. Bright acidity on the palate, structured beautifully with raisins, and white flowers, late apricots peach and some fascinating iodine and saltspray complexity. Oily, but light, finely balanced, impeccable. Long sustained finish, showing butterscoth and salted butter. Quite stunning, and the bottle totally alive - heaps better than the previous bottle, which was flagging. Unfortunately, my last bottle. Certainly and unabashedly new-world, but gosh, enough character and complexity to take on some serious burgs, IMHO. Easily rivals the Leeuwin Estate from a similar vintage.

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  11/2/2013 - CamWheeler wrote: 88 Points

  Wine and Food Matching @ Ben's: Caramel oak, with some sea spray and a light sherry character than may suggest this bottle was just starting on the downward slope. The wines richness shows through on the palate, almost overwhelming power but there is a pure fruit character that kicks in on the finish and it finishes quite fresh.
  
  I think the quality of this wine is obvious, hopefully there are better bottles out there.

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  12/30/2012 - Paul S wrote: 92 Points

  JM's Old World Education (Pine Close): Still a very good new world Chardonnay, but this was really quite disappointing after the magical showing we had with the last bottle a year or so back. While that was at the peak of its powers, this bottle seemed tired and a little flabby at the edges - quite clearly coming towards the end of its drinking window. I must say it still had a lovely nose though - a complex melange of sweet aromas, from matured mushroomy nuances, and honey and caramel notes, to ripe apples and sweet melons, earth and mineral, and just a little waft of honeysuckle flowers. A nice, warm, sunny nose, with as much nuance and shade as one would hope for even in a great Burg Grand Cru. The palate was, unfortunately, a few steps behind. Promising on the attack, where it was still rich and creamily textured, it showed the ripest apple flavours along with honeyed, dried mangoes tones, all wrapped in lovely melting balance. It was only past the midpalate where it seemed to lose the vibrant edge, with the fruit thinning out a bit to reveal a spine of minerality and a touch of spice. Even then, the finish had really respectable length to it, with complex little lingers of fruit and honey floating away into the distance. After an hour opened though, when Alex H got to try it, the bottle had clearly gone downhill, becoming rather flabby at the back-end. This perhaps illustrates the gulf between the best of the new world and the old - the bottles of 1997 Leory Bourgogne Blanc and 1995 Roulot Meursault Village that followed were far more alive than this was, perhaps even needing more time in the cellar. Overall, this was a very nice wine while it lasted, but one at the sunset of its life. Drink up.

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