Judgement of Singapore - Chardonnay Edition

6 of us gathered to loosely recreate a "Judgement of Paris" tasting (1 British, 1 Canadian, 1 Singaporean, 1 Korean, 1 French, 1 Hong Kong). 8 wines were included - 4 California / 4 Burgundy. The wines were served single blind in random order. Each person was asked to guess the region & provide a ranking from 1-8 (1 being the best wine & 8 the worst). The lowest scoring wine & region would therefore be declared the "winner". The tasting notes below are from my reflections the day after the tasting when I could retaste the leftovers. The format exactly matched that of a previous Cabernet edition of the tasting.

Completely by chance flight 1 consisted entirely of California

• 2017 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Fruit nose. Bubble gum character but still clean, pure, precise. Tangy, delciious sour component on the finish. Distinctive, unique style. Improved on the 2nd day.

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• 2015 Heitz Cellar Chardonnay 90 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Apple and pear aromas. Nose is ripe and some tropical notes but more steely and acidic on the finish. Very good.

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• 2016 Shafer Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros

  OTT. Sweet, creme brulee, pushed too far. Personally, I can't tell the difference between this and cheap Cali Chard in terms of the character.

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• 2016 DuMOL Chardonnay Chloe Ritchie Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Biscuit, Brioche, peach, pineapple. ruby grapefruit. Can be very distinctly broken down into attack, mid-palate, and finish. Strong minerality. Very good.

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Completely by chance flight 2 consisted entirely of Burgundy

• 2017 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 86 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Not giving off much on the nose. Surprisngly ripe. Simple profile with short finish. The most surprisingy disappointing wine of the tasting. I much prefer the straight chablis in this vintage.

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• 2016 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Ok, wow. Lovely nose - Butter, cream, lemon, lemon peel, grapefruit. Lovely smooth balance on the palate. Soft round texture, Nice minerality. Clearly very high quality.

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• 2014 Domaine Latour-Giraud Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Didn't get to taste this on the 2nd day so no notes but this was seriously good and value also.

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• 2012 Guffens-Heynen Pouilly-Fuissé Extremis 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, Pouilly-Fuissé

  Toast, some spicy tropical notes. Distintive exotic character with sweet finish.

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Key Facts & Figures:
1/ Burgundy "won" the tasting with a score of 87 - 124 reversing the result from the Cabernets.

2/ The wine scores were as follows: Latour (16), Drouhin (23), Fevre / GH (24), Dumol / Heitz (30, Montelena / Shafer (32)

3/ The "best" wine was therefore the Latour-Giraud Meursault 1er Genvrieres. The "worst" wines were the Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch and the Montelena. In fact, all top 4 wines were Burgundy.

4/ Only 1 person preferred California

5/ As a group, we got the region correct 54% of the time. We expected our accuracy to be higher than for Cabernet but were wrong.