I was fortunate enough to be invited to “The Mornington Peninsula is Coming to Town” wine trade show in Brisbane last Monday. Of course the show featured predominantly Pinot Noir & Chardonnay. Both of these grape varieties thrive down there as they enjoy the cold ocean breezes blowing across the vineyards. Across the board their Pinot Noir was exceptional but I was particularly taken by the Chardonnay.

It seems that the lovely folk of Mornington are moving right away from the typical peach, nectarine & stone fruit flavours. They are moving more toward the leaner & tighter grapefruit-like flavours. This is a deliberate move to bring their style of Chardonnay closer to the French Chablis style. To me the difference was so stark that I thought the first wine in our master class had something wrong with it. As an avid Riesling & Semillon lover I happen to quite like it. That slightly sharper, zippy flavour & linear behaviour on my palate is something I quite like. My offsider for the day wasn’t so convinced. I will be interested to see if other regions will move in a similar direction.

Will it catch on?  I guess only time will tell.

Buy a bottle of Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay from the 2009 vintage or later & see if you like the difference.

-Andrew