2004 MadFish Chardonnay Tasting Notes

The 2004 growing season was an outstanding year for quality Chardonnay. The long and cool Summer and Autumn allowed the fruit to undergo an even period of ripening leading to exceptional development of fruit flavour.

Carefully selected batches of fruit from the premium grape growing regions of Margaret River and the Great Southern were chosen for this wine. Only free run juice was taken from these parcels which was then fermented in French bariques of which 35% were new and 65% were one or two years old allowing for a more subtle oak character to give a fuller expression of fruit character. The majority of these barrels were sulphured to preserve their fruit freshness and fine character while a small percentage (around 8%) were left on their fermentation lees and were stirred weekly to allow development of spicy autolytic yeast characters to complement the fresh fruit flavours.

The wine was then left to mature in barrel for nine months until it was blended in February 2005.

The MadFish Chardonnay is a modern approach to the oaked Chardonnay style, making use of subtle oak flavour that will not overpower the fine fruit structure of this wine. The choice of regions allows the mingling of the delicious pear and nectarine flavour of Margaret River to be melded with the fine and elegant citrus flavours of the Great Southern. The oak contibutes a wonderful cashew and biscuity character to the wine.

On initial tasting this wine gives a delightful eruption of pear and citrus with sweet textural oak and a savoury mid palate leading to a wonderfully long and clean grapefruit finish of fine tight acid.

This will go wonderfully with flavoursome seafood, and richer poultry dishes.

Although this wine is made with the intention of immediate consumption it will reward those patient enough to cellar it for up to five years with the development of richer secondary characters.