Grosset Piccadilly Chardonnay 2011

Grosset Piccadilly Chardonnay 2011 (Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, SA)
13.5%, Screwcap, $57
Source: Sample
www.grosset.com.au

There is a certain level of precision found in the (non Riesling) Grosset wines that immediately marks them as ‘contemplation wines’. The Rieslings are less about contemplation and more about intensity, but the other wines are generally for thinking about rather than ‘smashing’.

This 2011 iteration of the Grosset Piccadilly Chardonnay needs more than a sip to get a feel for it too, showing that typical ’11 ‘Hills’ vintage, acid driven prickly reticence. If it was in human form it would be a challenging, slightly abrupt, but ultimately genuine, highly intelligent blonde girl/guy. Not quite a teutonic automaton but certainly haughty. Tall, with blue eyes too (surely).

It certainly smells the part with hay, smoky wild yeast and layers of slightly obvious oak. Many of these ’11 South Australian whites show their oak actually, the minerally fruit not quite having the juiciness to compete with the heavier vanilla flavours of oak. Still, it all looks promising here, those layers of oak, fruit and yeast complexing nicely, if still coming together. Slightly raw finish but certainly carries a finesse too, the oak there but precisely so.

Perhaps a slightly skinny edition of the Grosset Piccadilly at this stage, but the quality of fruit and winemaking suggests that 2-3 years will be kind, particularly as it gets a bit fatter through the middle. Style, with the flavour just waiting to catch up. I like the lines muchly.

Drink: 2014-2018
Score: 18/20 93/100+
Would I buy it? Not quite yet. Spotted on a list in 2-3 yrs time that would be a yes.