The tasting below reminded me just how good top Australian Chardonnays are, especially the top Western Australian ones. Vintages ranged from 2003 to 2005 and many of the 2003s, six months older than their European counterparts, are still extremely youthful – younger-tasting in fact than most of the whites made in Europe in that, admittedly freakishly hot, year. The cliché about Australian Chardonnays being big, fat and over-oaked is dreadfully outmoded. (And, I hasten to assure you, I have absolutely no axe to grind pro or anti Australian wine.)
The bargain of the lot is the Cape Mentelle 2003...