Tough job, I know, but over the last few days I have opened and thoroughly enjoyed Giaconda Chardonnays from 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1998 on separate occasions. The 1993 was made from a difficult vintage, but remains a long, seamless and savoury wine with exceptional length and balance. The 1994 is a riper, more luscious wine that represents a step up in power and structure from the 1992 vintage, which was itself Giaconda’s first suggestion it could produce chardonnay of substance and weight. There’s still plenty of life in the 1994 wine, while the 1996 is perhaps developing marginally more quickly. Now, as an eight year-old, there are toasty, mealy characters appearing in the wine, but its exceptional core of melon and citrus fruit, plus its famous matchstick-like and earthy bound sulphide influences retain all the appeal they showed in its youth. It’s a genuine landmark wine, and represents the first of the modern series of Giaconda’s Chardonnay. Opened last night, the 1998 vintage is another great wine. The rather raw alcoholic influences apparent early in its life have been submerged beneath the wine itself, as fruit and slowly emerging bottle-aged influences develop in power and intensity. Most impressive of all is its remarkable length of tightly integrated, totally harmonious flavours and textures. A benchmark vintage of an exceptional wine. If you haven’t tasted wines such as these, you’ve no business writing off all Australian chardonnay as being one-dimensional and industrial.
