Well if you are talking “Noble” then you should be talking about Botrytis affected wines of which I have a few including De Bortoli’s Noble 1.
At one stage at the old house I had over 100 Chardonnay’s (still got a few with good age on them including Lakes Folly) and probably 60 Riesling and noticed that Chardonnay’s suffered from over commercialisation and ridiculous pricing so for me it became passé
Where Riesling were out of vogue for a long time but there was still outstanding quality at affordable prices.
I suggest you get a Stein (Mudgee) Riesling and a Chardonnay of equal value and come back to me.
You are correct in that I do like my reds and the Barossa and Terra Rosa region of the Coonawarra produce some classic value for money wines.
Steins also make very good Shiraz but I suppose Henschke and Rocky Callaghan’s Rockford wines would be amongst my favourites.
Mrs OT and I have had many a good Chardonnay with some pear, good quality blue vein and a dry biscuit but fair to say we probably enjoy some red, prosciutto, nice cheddar and a water cracker a little bit more.
Life is too short to limit yourself to one line of enjoyment.
Haha, I was hoping that you would pretend to know a lot about wine.
I know Jacob Stein personally and until recently represented his brand in NSW.
His Rieslings are excellent but Chardonnay nothing to write home about.
Now, on the rest.
Lakes Folly Chardonnay- Very inconsistent and vintage specific. They make good wines one in every 3-5 vintages and their Chardonnay is very heavily oaked. It’s an old boys wine.
Debortoli Nobel 1 - Absolute rubbish on a world scale. Lacks acidity. The Botyritis is artificially induced in most vintages and not natural to the Griffith region. It’s basically sugary rubbish and doesn’t compare to the great sweet wine regions of the world. Lacks the acidity.
Terra Rossa isn’t a region of Coonawarra, it’s a soil type found in that region. It’s 2km wide and about 25km - 30km long.
And the wines from this region are more or less dead in the market place. The wines are dated and nobody seeks these wines out on lists or bottle shops anymore.
On the Shiraz, Steins is very ordinary, Henschke is OK but over-hyped and Rockford is over-extracted, over-ripe wines made for old farts that subscribe to their elitist cellar door program. They are very successful but their basket press in a benchmark tasting wouldn’t beat ALDI wines TBH.
Regarding your last line saying life is too short to limit yourself to one line of enjoyment?
Mate, the best wines of the world are outside of the country we live in.
I regularly drink Burgundy, Rhone, Loire Valley, Italian, Spanish wines that leave the wines of Barossa, Coonawarra, Mudgee for absolute dead.
We are minnow and will never compete with the quality of Europe. We aren’t in the same stratosphere with them on a wine quality level at the premium end.
Kinda forgot why I am rambling here.
Oh yeah, Chardonnay!
Best fricken white variety in the world bar none.
You should try and get your hands on some top Puligny-Montrachet or Chassagne-Montrachet from a good producer. Or maybe you’d prefer a Mersault 1er Cru if you like Lakes Folly.
