With the August sun being seen for a few seconds recently, between cloud and rain, I thought that I would experiment with some blind white wine tastings.
The first was a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting Bordeaux. I invited the boss of a very famous Chateau to dinner and asked him to bring a white wine. He very kindly arrived with a bunch of roses for my wife and a bottle of the outstanding, and very expensive (£1500 per dozen), Puligny Pucelles 2005 from Domaine Leflaive. I served it blind against a bottle of Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2006 from Kumeu River. As this is a wine that sells at £150 per dozen (yes one tenth of the price) I was a bit nervous but hoped that we might get a David vs Goliath result rather than Chelsea vs Wigan.
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They were a fascinating pair. The Leflaive had terrific concentration and a rich oily texture but could, perhaps, be criticised for being slightly flabby. The Hunting Hill had impressive weight but was much more mineral and focussed with wonderful balance and impressive length. Certainly leaner than the more viscous Leflaive. The 10 people at the table agreed that we had a pair of White Burgundies but which did they prefer? A well known French sommelier to my right was more impressed by the richness and weight of the Leflaive but alongside me the man from the very famous Chateau (who, I might add is a great blind wine taster) prefered the Kumeu River which he thought was his own bottle of Leflaive. Everyone was given one vote and the final score was Kumeu 6 Leflaive 4. A very close contest and a fantastic win for the plucky little Kiwi underdog.
Last week I thought that I would up the stakes a little and give our New Zealand wine an even tougher work-out. I decanted 8 white wines and asked my guests to guess the theme and vote for their 2 favourite wines of the flight. The wines were (with approx price per bottle):
Everyone was sure that the wines were all Chardonnay and that furthermore they were all Burgundy. Only the Kistler had anyone wondering if a new world "ringer" had been snuck in to put the cat amongst the pigeons. It took a while, but eventually the theme of consecutive vintages was worked out as the wines were stylistically so different. The old chestnuts of "same grower" or "same vintage" having been eliminated early on. Perhaps the obviously low acidity 2003 gave the game away. This is a vintage that is easy to spot as the wines are already past their best and are often desperately lacking in acidity. The poor old Gagnard scored nul points. Also scoring zero was the most expensive wine of the tasting, the Montrachet from Jadot. There were gasps when this was revealed as it was simply flabby and boring. Hopefully going through a sleepy stage but certainly lacking any of the majesty expected from the world's greatest dry white wine vineyard.
There were those who liked the opulently textured Kistler and the dirt-cheap Verget was mentioned in despatches - certainly performing heroically in such classy surroundings. The Guffens did well with 3 votes (one of which was mine). However we had an extraordinary 3 way tie for First place with the sensationally rich and drop-dead gorgeous d'Auvenay wine from Mme Bize-Leroy scoring 5 points, as did the serious and complete Batard Montrachet from Girardin and our old friend Hunting Hill Chardonnay from Kumeu River. If this race had been a handicap the Kumeu would have won comfortably instead of finishing in a dead heat. At a fraction of the price of the other two winners it once again out-performed all expectations.
If you are looking for a white wine bargain this summer then, at our sale price of £150 per dozen in bond, I can assure you that you simply cannot get a better white wine for your money than Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2006. If you'd like some extra re-assurance from the critics, it scores 91 points in both the Wine Advocate and The Wine Spectator. The price goes back to £180 at the end of the summer, so you better be quick!
Wednesday, 1 September 2010 by Stephen Browett
Following the publication of this blog, our last 150 cases of Hunting Hill 2006 have sold out in just 3 days. The good news is that Kumeu River Wines have sold us all of their remaining stock of the 2007 vintage which we will be shipping shortly. The ratings for this vintage are even better than for the 2006 (Wine Advocate 94, Wine Spectator 93, JancisRobinson.com 18) and we will reduce the price from £180 to £150 for those customers ordering as a result of this blog. Please quote "blog" with your order to receive the £30 per case discount. Please also note that our normal minimum order of £500 has been reduced to £300 for this offer (2 cases).
