Saturday, June 27, 2009

Giaconda Chardonnay 2002 Beechworth




For all of you who have been to The Louvre in Paris and been disappointed with not only the size of ‘The Mona Lisa’, but also having only a short glimpse of the Leonardo’s beauty before being shoved along by some surly French security guard, the Giaconda Chardonnay is for you. Here, however, you will not be moved on, but you will be asked to shell out quite a few bucks.

In Italy, ‘The Mona Lisa’ is lovingly referred to as ‘La Giaconda’, or the beautiful one. In Australia Giaconda is referred to as one of our true great wines which have few peers. Sitting in the foot hills of the Alpine Valley in north-east Victoria, Giaconda has been producing Australia’s best Chardonnay for almost two decades. In this time, there would be only 3 or 4 producers who have challenged Giaconda’s mantle as the best, but these wines cannot claim the consistency of Giaconda.

Crafted with painstakingly precession by winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner, Giaconda wines each year get snapped up in quick time for premium prices. Once on the open market, these wines quite often find themselves on secondary auction sites where once again, these wines demand bids of up to $400 a bottle.

So, onto the wine. The Giaconda Chardonnay 2002. I love it so much!!

In one of my earlier posts in April this year, I wrote on the development in some wines and the flavours that they acquire. This wine is a perfect example of this, with it starting out with fresh acid when I first had this in 2004, to a very sexy Burgundy like gem in 2009.

The colour is a yellow gold, which indicates that this wine has still got plenty of kick into it. The nose is crème brulee custard up front with a sniff of liquorice and stewed pineapple in the end. In the mouth there is so much happening!! Praline, liquorice powder soft acid with a hint of grapefruit, which once again highlights its infancy. Did I say how much I loved this wine; J'aime ce vin

Perfect balance, perfect length and complexity and gorgeous weight – sheer perfection I say.

Drink with Pike quenelles in a white wine sauce
Drink till 2018
19.7/20

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