Our blind tasting game—without the tasting! Can you identify a wine just by reading its tasting note? We post real Wine Spectator reviews. You use clues such as color, aromas, flavors and structure to figure out the grape, age and origin. Good luck!
Tasting Note: Rich, elegant and wonderfully supple, bursting with juicy peach, orange sherbet and lemon zest. Offers details of candied ginger, lemon blossom and toasted hazelnut that linger and gain complexity on the finish.
And the answer is...
Variety
Our rich and elegant mystery wine displays peach, citrus, ginger, floral and nut notes. Let’s figure out what it is!
We can begin by eliminating Assyrtiko, a Greek grape that makes lighter-bodied wines with high levels of acidity and notes of passion fruit, wax and minerals.
Richer Sauvignon Blancs can show our wine’s peach, citrus and floral notes. But we are missing that grape’s distinctively high levels of natural acidity. Let’s move on!
A fuller-bodied Riesling could show our wine’s richness, fruit flavors and floral accents. However, we’re missing some of that grape’s hallmark notes, such as wax, petrol and stony minerals. Also, hazelnut would be an unusual descriptor for a Riesling. Maybe another grape works better?
Pinot Grigio commonly makes whites with peach, citrus zest and nut notes. This sounds right, except we would expect a Pinot Grigio to be less rich and supple than our white. We are also missing Pinot Grigio’s hallmark minerality. It has to go too.
Chardonnay styles can vary, but many versions are fuller-bodied with rich peach and citrus flavors accented by savory, floral notes. Plus, many Chardonnays show toasty accents as a result of aging in toasted oak barrels. This sounds like what we’re looking for.
This wine is a Chardonnay.
Country or Region of Origin
Chardonnay grows in a variety of climates and soil types throughout many of the world’s leading wine regions; its characteristics vary greatly depending on location and winemaking practices. With that said, Germany is not a major region for Chardonnay production. The same goes for Portugal. While some Chardonnay is made in Greece, the grape is not nearly as significant there as local varieties like Assyrtiko and Moschofilero. Chardonnay originates in France, where producers tend to make leaner versions focused on minerality and smoky oak notes. This contrasts with styles from Australia, a New World foothold for Chardonnay, where styles are often richer with riper fruit, candied spice and nut flavors. We have a match!
This Chardonnay is from Australia.
Appellation
We know that our Chardonnay is from Australia, so we can eliminate France’s Alsace, Portugal’s Douro, Germany’s Nahe and Greece’s Santorini. This leaves us with two Australian appellations: Clare Valley and Piccadilly Valley. Located in the wider South Australia region, Clare Valley is well-known for its refreshing whites predominantly made from Riesling. Farther south, Piccadilly Valley is primarily a sparkling-wine appellation, but its producers also make still wines from a range of grapes, most often Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This is closer to the mark.
This Chardonnay is from Piccadilly Valley.
Age
Our Chardonnay’s fruit notes are still fresh, and it isn’t showing any signs of significant age. Let’s look at Australia’s most recent vintages to figure out our white’s age. 2020 was the third year in a row to have lower yields, with harvests reduced by as much as 50 percent; but the year’s quality was high, producing Chardonnays with rich stone fruit, citrus, spice and nut notes. Hot and dry weather limited yields in 2019, resulting in expansive and expressive Chardonnays with cream, butterscotch and toast notes. 2018’s growing season was long, and that year’s Chardonnays are complex with orchard fruit, melon and saline notes. 2017 was a cool and wet year, leading to a crop of lush Chardonnays with butter and wax accents. 2020’s whites sound the most like our wine.
This Chardonnay is from the 2020 vintage, making it two years old.
Wine
This is the Petaluma Chardonnay Piccadilly Valley 2020, which scored 92 points in 2021. It retails for $60, and 1,700 cases were made. For more on Australian wine, read senior editor MaryAnn Worobiec’s tasting report, "Ready for Their Close-Up," in the Aug. 31, 2021, issue of Wine Spectator.
—April Louis, assistant tasting coordinator
