2017 wasn’t a great vintage across the region for red wines as Cyclone Debbie produced a rain laden slow moving low. Fortunately for white grapes they had all been harvested before the low arrived. The 2017 vintage for chardonnay has produced some of the best local wines I’ve ever encountered, if you have some of these wines there’s no rush as the fruit power and balance of 2017 Granite Belt Chardonnays seems excellent regardless of vineyard/winery. There are of course different styles, this one has layers of creamy oak but the fruit remains the star.
Since the last one of these I tried the wine has developed some beautiful gold straw colours – the allure is enticing.
The bouquet is now powerful you could almost describe it as thick and pulpy with stone fruits, the pith and sour aromas are palpable you can almost touch them with your olfactory senses such is their persuasive potency.
The mouthfeel is creamy and caressing, coating your taste buds with intense stone fruits flavours wrapped in brioche and sourdough and flowing in a nutty almond and cashew stream. The sourness of the stone fruits combines with some pithy grapefruit and encounters a faint honeydew melon placatory influence but the sourness dominates. The fennel is still present, somewhat sublimated but with just enough cogency to add a little more harmonised complexity to the palatal enjoyment. There is a little minerality still and the acid continues to drive the wine to exceptional length.
Yes 2017 Granite Belt Chardonnay, I doubt you could go wrong regardless of which winery label you bought. All these 2017’s should have a long life, no need to rush them as they will continue to develop for years while you can, hopefully, find some process to strengthen your self-control and that of course will be difficult!
Rod MacPherson married another local wine maker Phillippa so Whiskey Gully has 2 wine makers for the price of one, a great deal as Phillippa was an excellent wine maker producing the Queensland wine of the year – a shiraz at Preston Peak.
Tasted: Sunday 1st September, 2024 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 11.8%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $35
Suggested Drinking Window: 2018 to 2030
Wine Maker: Rod MacPherson
Fruit Source: Estate
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