Friday, 1 June 2012

Dawson & James Chardonnay 2010

I always get excited when I see bottle of wine from a new winery come across my tasting bench.  This wine is the first release from two gentlemen that have been in the industry for donkeys years. In fact they have retired many times from different wineries.  The vineyard that this wine comes from used to make it's way into the top wine from Bay of Fires.

Dawson & James Chardonnay 2010

Massive barrel ferment characters yell from the bottle as soon as I open it but they soon mellow out and allow the bright flavours of grapefruit and peach skin to take the stage.  On day one, the entry of the wine was a little too sweet but by day five everything was humming along. This is a beautiful wine with huge amounts of flavours like toffee, gunpower, smoked spice and nuts woven into the fabric of the wine. At 42 bucks it provides very good value for a wine of this quality.  The only thing that let me down from moving the wine into stupid value territory was the weak mid-palate but I would still happily stash these away for a while before I pulled them out at a party.


Alcohol: 12%
Price: $42
Rated: 89
Drink: 2017 - 2025

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 June 2012 at 03:50

    Josh, what is your best Aussie Chardonnay at this pricepoint?. ie about $40 to $45 per bottle

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    1. Josh Tuckfield8 June 2012 at 17:01

      The two that come to mind are Michael Hall 2009 or 2010 and Shaw & Smith 2010. Both are about the 40 buck mark, that said I have received a couple dozen Chardonnays last week but haven't started tasting them yet. Most are from the Yarra Valley and the Adelaide Hills so hopefully there is a few gems that I shall find.

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