Other Whites

Pioneers of Western Australia’s highly regarded Margaret River region, Vasse Felix has been growing grapes and making wine since the mid-1960s. In contrast to the King Valley’s “alternative varieties” this is an area that excels in making wines from the classic Aussie take on French varieties, red Bordeaux blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and whites from Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

Margaret river sits at the extreme south-western tip of Australia. Surrounded on all but one side by ocean (the “other side” stretches away into dessert), the oceanic influences act to temper extremes of temperature providing, along with the ancient and well-draining gravel soils, a perfect environment for quality grape production. To get a feel for the range of their portfolio and for what’s achievable with these natural resources, I chose their young, entry-level Classic Dry White blend and a 100% varietal Chardonnay (a 2020) from their Premier range. The estate’s top-level Heytesbury Chardonnay deserves a review all its own (to follow when I can get my hands on a bottle).

The “Classic” in their dry white blend refers not only to the area’s penchant for blending Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon but also to the White Bordeaux wines on which they are modelled. When aged, especially in oak, Semillon can be rich and intense (think of the aged wines from the Hunter Valley and, at the extremes, Sauternes) but in youth it can be relatively anodyne. Fragrant and high acid Sauvignon Blanc fits it like a glove and together they can achieve more than the sum of their parts (cf Bordeaux’s Pessac-Léognan). Vasse Felix’s take on matters is a youthful Semillon-heavy blend built on the fresh immediacy of the fruit. 

Pale lemon in colour with a green tinge, it’s made in an unoaked style to push the fruit forward. The fruit here is certainly at the fresher, greener end of the scale (grapefruit and gooseberry with just an echo of more scented melon) but there is a stone-fruit sweetness hidden in its depths too. It couldn’t be described as floral but there are hints of light acacia honey. As expected, the Semillon pushes up the body and brings the acidity down to medium + levels. Meanwhile, the Sauvignon (25% for 2022) works well to lift the aromatics and tighten things up with its zesty acidity. The blending is cleverly done to create a good, refreshing wine that’s crystal clear in outline.

The Chardonnay is a different beast altogether. It’s made, one feels, to showcase both the local fruit and the winemaking skills in the winery. It succeeds admirably on both counts. The wine is a bright, straw colour with a play of golden reflections. On the nose, there’s the wonderful spectrum of ripe, but not overly ripe, Chardonnay aromas: white peach, honeyed melon and even the beginnings of mango (albeit of the greener fruit near the skin rather than the dripping, fully tropical flesh within). The winemakers report 2020 as a warm, low yielding vintage but one that produced quality fruit: you can taste this in the wine’s aromatic elegance. Matured in French oak for 10 months (then a further 7 months on lees in tank), the wine has restrained pastry aromas with a seam of cedar running through and a full-bodied, mouth-filling texture. The slight pithy bitterness and an elusive note I tempted to call mineral flatter the fruit well giving an enormously appealing glass. I’d want this with char-grilled lobster fresh from the beach-side barbeque.

Barrel-aged Chenin Blanc is a classic deep-appley wine and a personal fav. Here’s a fine example, reasonably priced too for a wine that’s seen a lot or care and attention. Stellenrust is a classy outfit, one of the largest family-owned wine estates in South Africa. They have nearly 400 hectares of vineyards around the town of Stellenbosch, in the heart of SA's winelands to the east of Cape Town.

Outside its Loire homeland (where such things are rigorously managed), Chenin can be subject to excessive yields. This results in dilute wines rather lacking in character. The best producers in South Africa, Chenin's 'other heartland', follow the French and add their own history (and a whole lot more sun to boot!). Stellenrust call themselves, 'custodians of old vines' and you can taste their commitment to quality in every golden drop. Clearly a South African wine, it's a glass of southern-hemisphere sunshine but one with character and verve, not lacking in a certain bold elegance either.

Beautiful, limpid green-lemon colour in the glass, the nose is immediately captivating. Oak yes, but subtly integrated with the green/yellow apples and pear heading for melon and stone-fruit territory. The acidity is nicely worked, sitting there spiking the flavours, encouraging them onwards. And it's starting to get that lovely nutty-almondy quality beneath the apricot and citrus fruit. With such skilled winemaking on show, it manages to be both full-bodied and refreshing all at once. This is the very essence of Chenin born and raised in the sun.

This weight (but lack of overbearing heft) means that it is prefect with food but can also fly solo. A delicious all-rounder that is able to step up to special-occasion feasting but also makes a goodly glass for less formal scoffing.

It has a lot to offer, a wine to savour and ponder. Makes a nice alternative to the more typical oaked Chardonnay to accompany a roast fowl, especially guinea fowl or smaller, less gamey game. It's richness and oaked roundness also mean that it would rise to the challenge of the Christmas bird with ease, complimenting both the drier flesh of a turkey and its array of strongly flavoured accompaniments. At other times, a fat rare-bread pork chop with potatoes and roast apple would be superb with this by its side, too.

To say 'hillier' is something of an understatement. This is 'alta', really 'alta'. And that equates to lots and lots of sunlight that hits the grapes at an optimal angle to ripen them nice and slowly whilst allowing the development of lovely flavour precursors and the retention of good amounts of piquant acidity. Basically, very tasty, complex grape juice with the right phenolic and acid profile for lovely, age-worthy wine!

Exactly what you get when you pop the cork of this beauty. First thing to note is how masterfully the oak has been handled. The new/old oak has offered a little vanilla and the hint of smoky cedar that goes so well with ripe Chardonnay. But we are talking nuances, here. Not big bombast and a mouthful of oak chips. This is Chardonnay in its aromatic, silky and suave guise, the oak adding to but certainly not dominating the fruit. Juicy lemon, deep appley apple and fragrant pear; kisses of more developed fruit like melon, white and yellow peach; textural pull and a light buttery pastry quality from the lees; and a cream-laden weight. Quite obvious that there's a lot going on in addition to the oak seasoning. Whilst you will keep noticing more as you proceed and as the wine opens up, it is never confused or unnecessarily complex. All the wonderful parts have been brought together by the consummate skill of a master winemaker. Roast turkey (from the Americas, after all!) and scented, sweet parsnips? Yes, please.

Christmas really wouldn't be Christmas without a quality Chardonnay to lend its golden fruits to proceedings. But that doesn't have to mean budget-busting white Burgundy. 'New World' expressions of the grape are so often better value and can be just as exciting.

Founded in 1902, Argentina’s Bodega Catena Zapata is a leading force in the country's wine scene. As they put it themselves, 'the story of Catena is the story of Argentine wine ....'. Their Malbecs are, of course, justly famous but there's a goodly supply of Chardonnay flowing from their scenic vineyards, too. Their Catena Alta label is reserved for a limited production of single-varietal wines from selected rows in their vineyards. Yes, it really is that boutique. For the price, that's quite extraordinary.

The Catena Alta Chardonnay (there are Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec reds in the range as well) is whole-cluster pressed and then fermented using ambient yeasts in large French oak barrels. All suitably top-quality processes. They leave 30% without malolactic fermentation to preserve the pert acidity and then the wine is aged on the lees in a mix of new and used oak for 14 months. 'Alta' of course translates as 'high' which gives you some indication of the elevation of the site: nearly 5,000 feet, in fact. This might surprise you if you've noticed that the wine hails from Mendoza but the area has (at least) two distinct zones: the flatter eastern region that produces a vast amount of wine, some of which is excellent and some not; and the hillier western reaches that inch their way up into the Andes.