The Question of Classic Chardonnay

“Chardonnay”, says Petaluma’s Brian Croser, ” is not just another white grape variety, nor is it a transient fad of the market place to be replaced by the next fashionable variety. Rather, its rise to pre-eminence has been inevitable and irreversible because of its ancient pedigree, a genetic makeup which imparts extraordinary winemaking qualities.”

It is anticipated that once all is said and done, all the vineyards harvested and all the tonnages totted up, that for the first time in Australia’s winemaking history chardonnay will have become the major quality wine grape in this country. There will be more tonnes of it crushed than either riesling or semillon in 1992.

Much of the Australian plantings of chardonnay have focused on cooler southern or high-altitude regions with cooler climates and later ripening seasons, such as Padthaway, Coonawarra, Margaret River, Mount Barker, the Yarra Valley, Geelong, the Mornington Peninsula, Piper’s Brook and the Adelaide Hills, creating grapes with fresh, intense flavours and high levels of natural acidity.

The grapes from these regions are most suited into the development of complex, structured wines, although the grapes must first be fully ripe to achieve the necessary high levels of alcohol, richness and soft taste demanded in premium chardonnay.

Herein lies the paradox, says Croser. Having chosen the coolest areas, the aim of the grower is to achieve full ripeness as quickly as possible, which would be far easier to manage in the warmer northern or riverland climates of Mildura, the Barossa Valley and Griffith. Strangely though, the best chardonnays from the cool areas are produced from the warmest sites and the warmer vintages, where the grapes have been able to quickly accumulate sugar and flavour and simultaneously reduce their acid levels in the ripening process.

The resolution of the dilemma is that cool areas are responsible for a delay in vine’s budburst, which in itself correspondingly delays the entire growth and ripening sequence of the vine. Grapes from cool areas are generally picked in warm sunshine but in cool air, whereas those in warm areas are harvested in the searing heat of February or even January.

The time and temperature of harvest produces distinctly different sets of flavours, some of which are not difficult to identify. Hot area chardonnay will taste sunburnt, says Croser, with flavours of honey, tobacco and ripe fruit. Cooler-region chardonnay tastes of melon, fig, peach and cashew.

Croser also contrasts the “big, blousy, unsubtle, commercial wines of the hot regions” with the “intense, more refined and winemaking complexed wines of cooler regions”.

Having said that, it’s not surprising to learn that Brian Croser has invested heavily in cool-climate chardonnay, with 40 hectares in the Piccadilly Valley, high in the Adelaide Hills. Of this area, Croser has found only 20 hectares which he believes consistently produce superior fruit for table wines, the balance finding its way into the ‘Croser’ sparkling wine programme.

1990 was the first vintage in which Petaluma’s Adelaide Hills vineyards have fulfilled their destiny to the extent that they have contributed 100 of the fruit required for the Petaluma Chardonnay, and this is the pattern that will repeat itself in future.

Croser rates the 1990 vintage in the Adelaide Hills as possibly the best from the last twenty, and declares his hand by saying the Chardonnay is possibly the best wine yet to emerge from Petaluma. Having sampled it I find it difficult to argue – the only possible contender to date being the remarkable 1988 Petaluma Coonawarra, a blend of 70 cabernet sauvignon and 30 merlot.

Oddly, having paid attention to Croser’s theories as detailed above in which warm seasons are allegedly the best for cool climates, 1990 was late and cool. However the wine, released in early May this year at around $28.50, speaks for itself. Because Petaluma Chardonnay has earned itself a worldwide reputation for being one of the ‘New World’s’ top examples of the variety, it’s worth discussing in full.

The wine has a moderate straw-gold colour and a rich complex nose with peachy and melon-like fruit, cashews, creamy and butterscotch flavours and toasty, vanillin oak. The palate is long, even and balanced, with pronounced fruit character and rich viscosity. Peach and quince-like fruit flavours combine with chewy, smoky oak finishing with the freshness and lingering acids of ripe grapefruit. It’s a brilliant, complete wine with classic varietal flavours and style, unquestionably amongst the best Australian chardonnays I have tried. That, for the doubters, puts it comfortably amid the best in the world.

Most of the Petaluma Chardonnay 1990 will probably be drunk within twelve months, by which time it will hardly have begun to flower. Fortunately Petaluma retains quantities for release as mature wines to restaurants, otherwise most of us would have to rely on cellaring the wine ourselves.

And now for more apparent contradictions. Although most Australians are aware that most red wines improve with age, few of us realise that our white wines, riesling and semillon especially, generally improve and last for longer in the bottle than our reds.

You will note the absence of chardonnay from that brief list of two. If one agrees with Brian Croser, who infers that most classic chardonnay, which implies it has real cellaring potential, will come from the cooler areas, then they have not been around for long enough to have yet established a track record for improvement with age. Indeed, most Australian cool-climate chardonnays made to date lack the richness and depth to which Croser refers to stand much of a chance of going beyond five years.

I would comfortably assert that the Petaluma 1990 has the legs to take it a minimum of fifteen and suggest you have a look at it to experience the sort of richness, length and integration required for Australian chardonnays to cellar well. There are several others I would add to the list: Bannockburn Geelong, Mount Mary Yarra Valley, Pierro Margaret River, Cullens Margaret River, Tarra Warra Yarra Valley and Giaconda Beechworth. The Mount Mary, Pierro and Cullens are all produced by individuals with significant medical connections. Please login to post comment