Church Road Chardonnay 2010 (Hawkes Bay, NZ)
13.5%, Screwcap, $25.99
Source: Sample
www.churchroad.co.nz
Lovers of old school, ‘buttery’ Chardonnays rejoice, for the Kiwis still make a wine just for you.
This Church Road Chardonnay is picked ripe, barrel fermented and matured on full lees for 10 months, the style unashamedly biased towards low acidity and full rich flavours.
In the modern Chardonnay context this looks to be a very dated style, the colour rather gold already, the wine showing plenty of oak, plenty of rich fruit and plenty of lees weight. I found it a bit too broad, heavy and wobby to really enjoy, but I can fully appreciate that there is a market for this sort of wine. Reasonable fruit length too.
Fashions be damned, this is a wine of weight and richness. Personally, I couldn’t drink much of it, but that’s just me.
Drink: 2013-2015
Score: 16/20 87/100
Would I buy it? No.
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