Cumulus Chardonnay 2010 (Orange, NSW)
13%, Screwcap, $30
Source: Sample
www.cumuluswines.com.au

The third release of this Cumulus Chardonnay, portions of this spent time in those particularly rad ‘egg’ fermenters before then maturing in French and Hungarian oak (Hungarian oak is often thought to give a little spice. I like spice. Apparently it can be more of an ‘overt’ oak however).

As a wine, this suffers a fraction under the weight of its winemaking, with rather bold, freshly sawn logs/meets vanilla icing oak characters on the nose. Super cool and fresh but looks more than a little airbrushed with some banana ferment esters. Lean and pineappley palate follows this with just a little creamy richness. It’s a contained wine, a polished one but very contained and full of banana cream pie sort of oak and lees characters.

A winemaking led wine (for the moment at least), this has serious scope for the future though looks a little blunt for the moment. 17.3/90++