If Australia is one of the renowned producers of Chardonnay, then James Halliday has to be the wine writer with his finger on the pulse of the variety. The renowned author, judge and critic was special guest at a Chardonnay tasting held earlier this year, by the Family of 12. Chairman William Hoare says the reason this particular variety was chosen was due to it being the one white grape variety that all members make and love.
“We all know Chardonnay expresses its sites, soils and winemakers, which is why everyone loves it. Amongst all the Family members, we have seen a definite resurgence and interest, so as a Family we decided we would focus our efforts on the Renaissance of Chardonnay as it is such a great variety especially in New Zealand. ”
With nearly all the New Zealand Masters of Wine present, it was the perfect opportunity to get some professional insight into the specific nuances emanating from this country. But this was no one sided affair, given the 12 Family Chardonnays were pitted against some of the great Burgundies, including Corton Charlemagne, Puligny Montrachet, Meursault, Chablis Premium Cru, Chassagne Montrachet and even a Batard Montrachet. The wines were grouped into three flights of six, based on their style. Their prices ranged from $40 to $400 per bottle and they had all been decanted into clean-skin bottles before each flight so the audience could get no clues as to what they were.
NZ Winegrower spoke to James Halliday after the event.
How real is the re-emergence of Chardonnay as a fashionable wine style?
I can only personally speak with assurance from the Australian perspective, and it is very real here. But I am confident that the same dynamics are in play in New Zealand, whether looked at from the consumer’s viewpoint, or from that of the winemakers.
What have wine makers learned from the fashion down-turn of the past?
Wine is unlike any other form of alcohol. Every vintage brings a new opportunity or challenge, and the obligation of the winemaker is to make the best possible wine in that context. That of a beer maker or a spirits maker is to produce the same beer or spirit week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out. Having made that distinction, there can always be a temptation for winemakers to become carried away with new flavours, chase alcohol levels up or down, become profligate in their use of oak, and so on, and so forth. We have seen it all before in California, then in Australia, and thereafter in New Zealand. Thus the lesson to be learnt is to think hard about the dangers of building flavour up, and this certainly happened in the three countries I have mentioned with Chardonnay. But even that gives rise to a further lesson. In pulling back from excess oak and excess alcohol, it is possible to go too far in the other direction, and produce thin, skinny lookalikes of Sauvignon Blanc. Put another way, hasten slowly, and constantly try to benchmark yourself against the greatest wines the world produces.
How did New Zealand’s wines hold up against the rest of the tasting?
Very well indeed, and this came as no surprise to me, because we had been seeing the same exercises in Australia over the past five years, and been fortified with the knowledge we have gained. The tasting was blind, and experienced tasters know the folly of trying to guess which wines are which, and rate them accordingly. This ends in disaster more often than not, so you should strictly consider the quality of the wine before you, and actively seek to put out of your mind who might have made it until your quality judgement has been written in stone. Having reached this stage, by all means then try to pin the tail on the donkey.
For the past 13 years I have been one of the Tutors at the Len Evans Tutorials, and each morning for the first four days the Scholars are given 30 wines to taste and mark as if they were in a wine show. With Chardonnay, there have always been New Zealand, Burgundian, Californian and Australian Chardonnays, with sometimes an oddity out of Italy or elsewhere. The Burgundies will always include a number of Grand Crus. Villla Maria Keltern Chardonnay has been highly acclaimed on a number of occasions (different vintages, of course) with higher aggregate points than some of the Grand Cru white Burgundies, other Australasian Chardonnays have also done very well. On a broader front, the quality of top end New Zealand Chardonnay has been well recognised in Australia for the past 10 years or more.
Were there any strong trends in wine making styles? If so what were they?
Both in Australia and New Zealand there has been a distinct move away from Chardonnays with overt oak, and, within reason, reducing the alcohol levels. Experience already shows that proceedingly blindly down the path of lower alcohol can strip the wine of its essential character. One point of disagreement, both by winemakers within Australia and by winemakers within New Zealand, is how much reduction (described as the smell of freshly burnt match or struck flint) in the bouquet of Chardonnay is acceptable. Some like the character, others dislike it, and yet others are blind to it. It was much more prevalent in the white Burgundies of 20 or more years ago, and one of the reasons that the New World – Australia and New Zealand in particular – are starting to show up so well against white Burgundies (as in this tasting) is that the Burgundian makers have realised they needed to make cleaner wines with lower sulphur levels. This has had an unintended consequence for them of increasing premature oxidation, but that’s a story for another day.
Lessons for the future?
There can never be too many tastings such as this, particularly where you are preaching to the sceptics. Preaching to the converted is heartwarming but of little tangible value.
With nearly every wine producing country in the world producing Chardonnay – what does New Zealand have to do to stand out on the world stage?
Be true unto itself. Chardonnay is the most malleable of all white wine varieties, and on equal footing with Shiraz when it comes to red wines. Both of these varieties can succeed in a wide variety of climate and soil; both can be strongly influenced by the methods and philosophies of the winemakers; and the mere fact that there are so many Chardonnays (and Shirazs) being made inevitably means there will be a diversity of style and quality. The best wines will be those where the place and the variety speak more loudly than the will of the winemaker. This, if you like, is another way of saying great wine is made in the vineyard, but whichever proposition you wish to take, it is only half true. You can only make truly great wine if you start with truly great grapes.
