ABSOLUTELY CHARDONNAY
Joanna Lumley, as Patsy Stone, in the TV show Absolutely Fabulous tottered about on high heels with her hair falling out, a glass of wine in one hand and waving a lipstick stained fag in the other, while saying things like “you can never have too many handbags or shoes” to express the philosophical element in her role as a fashion editor.
The same can be said about Chardonnay within reason, as in you can never have too much of it. It is not obvious wine and it has the capacity to age more reliably than the aromatic wines such as Sauvignon Blanc. Chardonnay is frequently maligned because of popular prejudice or ignorance. It can be dead dull, and even the better wines can be insufficiently obvious to appeal to people unused to the comparatively passive nature of this non aromatic grape variety. The good ones are subtly appealing, like the scented richness of a bowl full of ripe peaches.
Chardonnay has an enigmatic element. Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, both aromatic wines, can be described in terms of other fruit they resemble. Sauvignon Blanc is said to resemble gooseberries, or with bottle age as having the tang of stone fruit such as nectarines. Riesling has its own clear as a bell aroma of lemons and limes, and can develop a tang of honey from residual sweetness as the wine ages. The appeal of Chardonnay is in its capacity to develop with bottle age to reveal elements not visible in the young wine and as the vineyards age this complexity will become more pronounced.
Trinity Hill Chardonnay 2011 from Hawkes Bay, made by John Hancock is a good one. It is brilliant pale straw in colour and positively glows in the glass. It is beautifully balanced as to weight and length of palate and has something of the concentration and complexity of crystalline fruit, set against an aftertaste of bright, fresh, balanced acidity.
Tim Harris
October 2012
And here for something completely different are some shots I took at the Martinborough Airshow of a Sopwith Camel.
