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THE AGE, A2 Magazine
Mount Horrocks Chardonnay 2006
The last hurrah – this is winemaker’s Stephanie Toole’s last chardonnay (well, we’ll see) and it hits all the right varietal buttons splendidly. There’s excellent fruit on nose and palate, particularly stone fruit, all off-set by spicy oak and a zesty fresh finish.
Jane Faulkner, Saturday 28th July
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Divine
Scott
Wasley -Issue 40 August/October 2005
2004 Mount Horrocks Semillon $27
& 2004 Chardonnay $25
A stunning pair of wines. Both are barrel-fermented,
aged on lees for eight months, and bottled under screwcap.
Both are clever, rather than obvious, working on length,
savouriness, balance and a building of effect, rather
than overt fruit power and/or bludgeoning oak. Both
are delicious and will cellar well for quite a while.
Firstly, and for mine, particularly the semillon:
aromas of baked apple, flowers, Clare Valley soil and
pear, all nice and savoury-seeming, rather than glyceric.
The palate is deep and soft but in no way unctuous,
being cut and underpinned by a fantastic flash of broad
minerality. The lovely spicy-apple flavour is given
definition by softly gripping fruit tannin, meshed with
gentle oak and acidity. Wonderfully tasty, beautifully
integrated – a wine of grace, style and tremendous
flavour.
The chardonnay is equally superbly
assembled, with fruit/ oak/acid working brilliantly
together. At first, it’s slightly reserved - probably
because the excellent structure pushes the flavour further
towards the back half of the palate. It’s all
about a really long seamless, nicely spicy-grippy back
half where the citrus peel, sandalwood and macadamia
flavours settle in for the long haul. Great stuff.
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Wednesday April 27, 2005
In style, I think ’s
Mount Horrocks wines are similar to those of Shaw &
Smith: reserved and careful winemaking shows, with heaps
of squeaky-clean fruit. Fresh banana and the fleshiest
fruits abound here, through a lovely slender palate,
with piquant oaky flavours and tannins adding a little
contrast in the finish. It’ll look great after
a few years in the cellar. Pink grilled snapper with
witlof and wasabi. Outlets
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April 24, 2005
You could say that Mount Horrocks vigneron is on track with her latest Clare Valley
releases seeing they were vintaged in the old railway
station at Auburn.
Her 2004 Chardonnay ($24.00)
and 2004 Semillon ($27.00) are classy efforts from a
top-flight winemaker who competes with her illustrious
partner Jeffrey Grosset for fame and success at Clare.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age
This Clare Valley chardonnay is a bright and breezy,
vital kind of chardonnay, fruit-driven and full of pizzazz.
It’s quite a full style, loaded with nectarine
and peach-like fruit flavours, under-played oak influence
and slightly forward development. It’s clean and
dry at the finish. $25
chicken casserole
best within 18 months
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Just starting to settle into bottle and get itself ready
for the journey. Carries its Clare Valley stamp upfront
– warm, earthy, mineral-clay aromas, which lift
to reveal nectarine fruit and some nice florals. On
the palate, though, is where the wine really shows what
it’s all about – really classy mouthfeel,
rising effortlessly above chardonnay’s Achilles
heel (lack of natural textural interest). It’s
the sense of effortlessness that impresses most. A very
rewarding (and dry) wine with interesting interplay
between juicy and nutty elements. Buy it, cellar it.
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