2012 Giaconda Estate Vineyard Chardonnay

This wine is an Australian Icon, and a pleasure to taste. The wine is vinified from Estate fruit from the cooler south facing slope of the vineyard. It is fermented in barrel, of which 30% is new oak. The wine then goes through full malolactic fermentation and is aged in barrel for 22 months before bottling.

A golden yellow with a fleck of green in the glass, the nose gives seductive wood spice, marzipan, flint and an ever so subtle orange zest character. It’s concentration and complexity has to be experience to be adequately described.

The wines pits what would have started as minerally austere fruit against superb winemaking with a resulting wine that is one of the most complex and enjoyable i have tasted. The palate provides smokey wood spice on entry with white peach and nervy nectarine that will unfurl in time to come. Grilled cashews sit alongside sweet wood spice and a wonderful crystaline acidity that complements expressive white peach to finish.

This is the first Giaconda i have tried, hopefully not the last. I can now understand why this is an Australian Icon.