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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Wine Tasting - Matua Valley Gisbourne Chardonnay 2009

Cheers, Prost, or Saludos to all of my blogosphere friends!

Whatever floats your boat.  Do you know what floats my boat?  Yes!  A really good wine.  Have you ever experienced a "bad" wine?  I've only tasted one that was totally disgusting and have yet to uncork a bad "vinegar" wine.  Call me lucky, if you may.

Today's fine specimen?  It's a Chardonnay from Gisbourne, New Zealand.  Tiffany and I stumbled upon this particular wine drastically marked down at one of our local Sam's Warehouse Clubs.  The original retail was about $8.00 but we got it for $3.81 a bottle!!!  We originally purchased only a single bottle believing it to be a potential high risk.  After all, Sam's had cases of the stuff and it didn't appear to be moving off of the shelves even after the discount.

Wow!  Do Tiffany and I simply have horrible taste buds or have we secretly stumbled upon the mother load of a bargain?  After we got home and unscrewed the bottle to have a taste, both of us had our eyes light up and a smile come across our faces.  "Can it really be this good or am I just imagining this?"

Point Score A:  91
Point Score B:  89

2009 Matua Valley Gisbourne Chardonnay

Appellation:  Gisbourne, New Zealand
Grape Varietal(s):  Chardonnay
Retail Price:  $8.00
Vintage:  2009
Producer:  Matua Valley Wines
Alcohol:  13.0%
Calories:  91 per 4-ounce

Tasting sheets as follows.

Review A
Review B

Needless to say, we revisited this particular Sam's Club immediately and purchased more.  And we've revisited the Sam's Club many more times until our mother load supply was gone.  'Twas a very sad day indeed.  I was crying Chardonnay from my tear ducts!

We've only recently chilled a bottle for our tasting to share with you.  I simply forgot how truly wonderful this wine is.  My palate lit up with fond memories of bottles passed by.

A classic Chardonnay taste.  The Aussies and New Zealanders know white wine.  Trust me on this.  When we participate in the annual "Wines from Down Under" class, we know that we're in for a treat.  In this viticulture region you can come to expect wines from a world-class Shiraz to a world-class Chardonnay and everything in between.  Reds are bold and beautiful and whites are classic and crisp.  The 2009 Matua Valley Gisbourne Chardonnay will not leave you wishing you had laid you hard-earned money down on a different wine.  Instead you will be saying, "Bingo!  Chucky and Tiffany sure pinned this wine correctly.  Delightful, indeed!"

The label reads as follows:

"Founded in 1974, Matua Valley was the first New Zealand winery to produce Sauvignon Blanc, establishing it as an innovator and pioneer of New Zealand viticulture."

Okay, okay... I shall grant you that the marketing folks at Matua Valley Wines could use some serious restructuring of their label content.  If the original bottle had not been $3.81 and I had read this label, I might not have invested my money on it.  But, let's just say that whatever Matua Valley Wines lacks in their marketing department is more than made up by their production department!

Hi-dee hi-dee those-down-under-wines-are-over-the-top-ho my friends.

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