One of the best things about Australia’s large wine companies is the number of times their winemakers are told to act like they work for a small winery. They’re encouraged to explore new regions, experiment with different combinations of region and variety, and take risks you wouldn’t normally associate with the accountant-driven philosophies of many large businesses. BRL Hardy is no exception. A look around the diversity of chardonnay lying around its Tintara Cellars in McLaren Vale, and the spectrum of different oak it is matured in is enough to quicken the pulse of most winemakers. Ever since the debut of its Eileen Hardy Chardonnay, first made in 1986, BRL’s best chardonnay, wherever it might come from, has always been selected for this label. Since 1986 the wine has reflected the changing ideas of what a top-class Australian chardonnay should taste like and how it should be made. It always had a reputation for quality, but the 1996 vintage was the first of the Eileen Hardys to be taken really seriously. Winning the trophy for the Best Wine in the 1997 Royal Adelaide Show put it right on the map. While the early vintages of this wine were made from a very high proportion of fruit from Padthaway, South Australia, this wine also contained fruit from Canberra and the Adelaide Hills. Tasted recently, it’s still looking lively and vibrant. The 1997 wine reflected BRL Hardy’s intent to make a more restrained, delicate wine based around a tight backbone of grip and acidity, so it was sourced exclusively from the cooler regions of the Adelaide Hills (80%) and the Yarra Valley (20%). From a difficult season, it was given more new oak than usual and while offering some attractive fruit and smoky wood influence, it hasn’t the length of the better Eileens. Enter the currently available vintage from 1998 ($36 approx.), a blend of Adelaide Hills (46%), Yarra Valley (32%) and Padthaway (22%) fruit. It’s quite pungent and overtly fragrant, with creamy, smoky and toffee-like qualities to match its ripe melon, stonefruit, lemon and lime flavours. Ripe and mouthfilling, it’s firm and chalky, but still rather elegant: a classy wine. While many makers would be prepared to rest on their laurels, having made two very special chardonnays within three seasons, BRL’s makers were restless enough to want more. Their view is that the best chardonnays are finer and more supple, but don’t want for fruitiness. How would they find such qualities? By going to Tasmania. As it was also in Margaret River, Canberra and the Yarra Valley, BRL Hardy was the first of the big four Australian winemakers to invest heavily in Tasmanian vineyards. True, it was initially interested in Tasmania for its top sparkling wines, but Simon White and his team of white winemakers have since discovered that Coal River (east of Hobart) chardonnay perfectly suits their aims. The yet to be released 1999 Eileen Hardy Chardonnay included 27% Coal River fruit, the 2000 vintage 65%. While the 1998 Eileen Hardy Chardonnay is so easy to enjoy, there’s a clear trend evident in the 1999 and 2000 wines towards a purer expression of chardonnay flavour, a silkier, slightly fleshier texture and a fine, tingling mineral acidity. Keep an eye out for the Eileen Hardy Chardonnay. While its Shiraz stablemate is unquestionably more trendy right now, the Chardonnay is becoming a benchmark all of its own.
