Wine

Newcastle Herald

Saturday January 12, 2008

With John Lewis

Tyrrell's 2005 Single-Vineyard

Belford Chardonnay

The past year has seen the Tyrrell family wine company scale new heights with its Hunter semillons.

The zenith came at last November's National Wine Show in Canberra when the Tyrrell's 1998 Vat 1 Semillon won a gold medal in the soft, fruity dry white class, making it the single most awarded wine in Australian show history.

This and the other semillon triumphs of 2007 have tended to overshadow Tyrrell's achievements with chardonnay the white grape variety it pioneered in Australia. The late Murray Tyrrell triggered the chardonnay boom when he created the inaugural 1971 Vat 47 chardonnay.

Today just about every wine producer has a chardonnay and ones from the Hunter struggle to win wine show medals against entrants from Margaret River, the Adelaide Hills and the Yarra Valley.

I think it would be a mistake, however, to discount the Hunter as a source of good chardonnay. The present-day wines of Lake's Folly, Keith Tulloch, Poole's Rock, J.Y. Tulloch and Sons and Tyrrell's are top class.

That comes through in the Tyrrell's 2005 Vat 47 and the Tyrrell's 2005 Single-Vineyard Belford Chardonnay.

The Vat 47 ($50 to $55) is the 35th vintage of the marque and it's a beautifully elegant white that would be perfect with seared scallops with pea puree and caviar, lobster and avocado souffle or pan-fried snapper with preserved lemon dressing.

It is brassy-hued and has scents of honeydew melon and crushed almonds. Delicate nectarine flavour glides onto the front of the palate and citrus and sherbet fruit characters integrate with gently applied vanillin oak on the middle palate. Crisp steely acid features at the finish.

The 2005 Belford Chardonnay is straw with olive green tints and has citrus and hazelnut aromas. Ripe, generous golden peach flavour features on the front of the palate and continues onto the middle palate, there gathering in melon, marzipan and shortbread fruit characters and cashew-like oak. Crisp, flinty acid refreshes at the finish.

It would be beaut with Moroccan spiced cuttlefish, chicken and mushroom vol-au-vent or pan-fried Atlantic salmon with asparagus and oranges.

It was made from grapes grown on a vineyard owned by the Elliott family, but leased on a long-term basis by Tyrrell's. The block from which the grapes came was originally planted to shiraz, but these vines were pulled out and replaced with chardonnay propagated from cutting taken from Tyrrell's 1908 vines on the famous HVD vineyard.

Price: $35 to $40

Available: at theTyrrell?s

cellar door in Broke Rd,

Pokolbin, and in some fine

wine stores

Ageing: six years

Rating: *****

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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