Courtesy of Boccaccio Cellars, I've just received a couple of cases of 2006 Chardonnay. A sample bottle of the 2006 Coldstream Hills Reserve, wholeheartedly recommended by the store owner for me to assess (at the newly "elevated price tag"), alongside one of my favourite's, the 2006 Cape Mentelle and a case of the 2006 Hoddles Creek.
Janet and I opened a bottle each of the Yarra Valley Chard's last night to accompany some delightfully tasty Chicken satay skewers. Unfortunately both were suffering from excessive reductive characters on the nose with the Coldstream also badly affected on the palate. We did manage to enjoy a few glasses of the Hoddles Creek Estate wine once the bulk of the sulphur blew off.
Below are the notes I've just written, 24 hours after both bottles were opened.
Hoddles Creek Estate 2006 Chardonnay AUS$16
13.2% A/V Screwcap
Very pale straw and starbright. Juvenile appearance for a wine approaching its third year. Delicate, refined nose of grapefruit, ripe pear, white nectarine, a touch of cream, a subtle but most complimentary contribution from smoky/mealy oak and a whiff of struck match. Similarly-etched palate holding a tightly-bound structure, with excellent "yet to uncoil" white stone fruits, underripe figs and green melon, bright mineral acids providing wonderful vivacity and freshness, excellent grip from a well-delineated oak tannin regime on a very compact, extremely dry and elegant but long crisp finish. A wine with few pretentions, displaying clever wine-making and decidedly underworked. Drink 2010 - 2014. 90+ points. Excellent quality, even better value for money! Far better tonight than night one and I'll leave some in the fridge to reassess tomorrow night.
Coldstream Hills Reserve Chardonnay 2006 AUS$48
14.0% A/V Screwcap
Slightly more clarity than the Hoddles Creek but with an almost identical very youthful hue. Another wine holding a distinctively subtle but complex array of nuance - a composite of subtle mealy, reductive worked barrel characters combined with restrained citrus- and stone-fruit, excellent delineation with smoothly integrated but mouth-puckering acidity and quality biscuity/smoky oak. Excellent finish, albeit the heat from the higher alcohol makes its presence felt. Qualitatively, I cannot justify the 200% price hike compared to the Hoddles Creek. 90 points from me here and drink over the next five years but only after closely monitoring for excessive reduction and aerating for the necessary period to arrest the problem.
Conclusion - so glad I bought a case of the HCE!