SURPRISE & DELIGHT
Chardonnay from Central Otago? It’s not as wild a suggestion as you might think, writes
In the world of wine, 30 years is nearly no time at all. But it’s how long Central Otago pinot noir has had to establish a formidable reputation for itself. If in the 1980s and 90s sauvignon blanc from Marlborough emerged as the workhorse upon which our industry was built, by the early 2000s, pinot noir from the bottom of the South Island gave us a genuine thoroughbred bloodline.
The association of one grape with a region, particularly when they combine to form a successful brand, leaves little space for what else might be growing well and tasting good there. And in a region as relatively young as Central Otago there’s a lot still to be discovered about what you might find there.
At the end of 2022, I attended a tasting of Central Otago chardonnay, which proved refreshing in a number of ways. The proposition of tasting about 40 chardonnays from Central was itself a surprise – it is not a region that grows very much chardonnay (in volume) and I didn’t necessarily have a clear idea of what to expect.
The best of these wines were refreshing. Chardonnay can have a tendency to be bombastic. Some of the best are rich and dense, packed with palate filling flavours and textures, defined and detailed. When it goes wrong, chardonnay can be flabby and fatiguing rather than uplifting. But what I found in Central Otago was neither of these things. It wasn’t bombastic at all. These were chardonnays that impressed by being delicate and refreshing. There was an ethereal quality to some, and plenty of pretty floral and citrus aromatics. Again, a bit of a surprise, as Central Otago’s pinot noirs can have a reputation for themselves being overly forward (though subsequent tasting showed this up as an outdated conception), and there was nothing like a stylistic heavy handedness in this chardonnay line-up.
Among the winemakers, there was a consensus that the delicate, breezy style of chardonnay was reflective of the region’s relatively cold climate. What also impressed me was the openness and ease of the wines – that they impressed without striving to do so. Sometimes when wines are made with a stylistic ideal in mind, or made to meet the market or critical opinion, they can become overworked and lose the potential to surprise and delight. That certainly happens with chardonnay when it is dialled up to look for attention. It fails to be refreshing, which is something good wine should always be.
It also makes me wonder if a grape plays a minor role within its region, winemakers are granted a freedom to not try to impress, but rather to gently inquire and let a wine be what it will be; in which case I am reminded both to drink more Central Otago chardonnay, and to explore more often those varietals that sit within the shadows of their respective regions.
SOME OF MY PICKS FROM THE TASTING
1. Māori Point, Chardonnay, 2021, $35 Plenty of citrus and nectarine aromas, elegant shape and structure with a mineral core that carries the whole wine, with a great balance of chalkiness and flowers playing around the edges of the palate.
2. Gibbston Valley, China Terrace B95 Chardonnay, 2021, $75 Immediate promise on the nose, with aromas of honey and white flowers inviting you in. There’s also a hint of wet stone on the nose, which is backed up by a super clean, fluid and elegant palate shape. This wine has heaps of poise and the slightest whiff of wild fennel.
3. Te Kano, Northburn Chardonnay, $65 Light and bright, definitely more ethereal than terrestrial. A tight, linear structure that becomes even more impressive the longer it goes.
4. Felton Road, Bannockburn Chardonnay, 2021, $55.50 I love how clean and linear this wine is, it has a sense of ease that lets fruit and floral character show, again there’s an especially appealing fennel character to it.
5. Quartz Reef, Single Vineyard Chardonnay, 2020, $43 This had a touch more toasty oak than the other wines here, but showed well integrated acidity, which gave great length and bright fresh lemon aromatics.