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I hope I’m not a wine snob. We certainly don’t drink particularly expensive wine at home and I’m happy to glug down leftovers of sometimes very modest quality during the week. However, when it comes to actually choosing and paying for wine in a shop, I’m quite a tricky customer. If forced to make a list of my favourite white wine styles, rich, oaky Australian Chardonnay just wouldn’t be in the running. I want white wine to taste clean and fresh. We found that the majority of these cheaper white Australian wines had been made implausibly thick and rich to the point of requiring a large glass of water per glass of wine. This is great for our health, but not really the point.
Our favourite wine was made from what was called “a carefully crafted blend of classic Australian varieties”. Had I read the back label of this wine in the store, I would have quickly put it back on the shelf. Especially since the wine is £3.29. At this price, and taking off the cost of bottle, closure, label, transport from Australia, insurance, taxes and other incidentals, there is nothing crafted about this wine. It’s an industrial product – but a good one. Badgers Creek is non vintage and is available from Aldi. They have a huge range of wines at this sort of price and some of them are really good. There was a touch of sulphur on opening the wine, but we swirled and it lifted to give a lemon smell with a hint of vanilla. The wine sat well in the mouth. It was balanced and clean. It had some weight, but not too much.
Jindu Colombard/Chardonnay 2006 is £3.59 from Waitrose and smelt very strongly of pineapple flavouring with a touch of banana. It was pretty sweet, but had lemon acidity to counter this. We caught some banana on the taste as well.
Sainsbury’s Australian Chardonnay NV is £3.59 and had a lovely fresh, even perfumed, smell. It was clean and crisp in the mouth and the flavour lasted well. The Co-op’s Western Australian Verdelho 2005 is £4.99 and had a fairly appealing pineapple aroma. However, the taste was sweet and fruity with an oily, claggy texture which we didn’t like.
Aldi’s Bushland Reserve Chardonnay 2006, which is £3.99, smelt of pineapple and oak initially but, when we went back to it, it smelt strongly of toast. The taste was heavy and far too oaky.
Their Bushland Semillon/Chardonnay 2005 is £3.79 and had a nasty smell on opening, like dry-cleaning fluid. Once this lifted there was a pleasant enough lemon balm smell. I found the alcohol a little warm for the intensity of flavour in the wine. It wasn’t unpleasant, but the initial smell was unacceptable.
Our least favourite was First Flight, Reserve Australian Chardonnay 2005 which is £4.99 from Somerfield. It had a nasty smell of sulphur, mixed with hair remover. The alcohol was too hot and two members of the panel used the professional wine term “yuk” to describe the taste. Alex politely wrote “No thanks”.