Another quiet day on the news front, so another cellar update. One of the things I’ve historically enjoyed so much about Pierro Chardonnay is that despite its not insignificant dimensions and ripeness, it is typically so tightly and finely balanced that it is capable of cellaring for extended periods. While cork quality is obviously an issue with white wines around a decade of age, the bottle of 1994 Pierro Chardonnay I opened last night was little less than extraordinary. Still endowed with remarkable fruit sweetness, it’s in the peak of its form. Very developed, with nutty, savoury characters and a long, lively palate of exceptional complexity and freshness, it reveals some of the usual toasty, buttery, honeyed flavour spectrum of mature Australian chardonnay, but by no stretch of the imagination do these qualities either dominate or detract. Congratulations, Dr Peterkin. A wine I perhaps should have been more patient over is an absolute classic from the 1998 vintage, Tim Adams’ Aberfeldy Shiraz from the Clare Valley. It was always a finer, tighter and leaner expression of this variety, however saturated with flavour it might have been. Right now, the wine is in a dip, looking rather closed and tight. It took two days for the gradually dwindling contents of my bottle to really reveal its optimal fruit sweetness and smoothness, all of which simply vindicates my belief that the wine will last well beyond 2018. I shall have to be more patient next time.
