Penfolds Chardonnay Reserve Bin 09A

EVH. What a great bottle of wine. Very reductive - lovely matchstick. Well done. Mount Lofty.

Our last bottle. Enjoyed, but incredibly intense reductive characters so dominant on nose and palette. Matchstick and flint.

Green apple and peach. Still bright and fresh even at 10 years old. There was still some hints of cashew, but really subtle in this bottle

Another bottle of chardonnay that I thought was better on day 2 than day 1. The second day helped to round out and integrate the fruit and oak. There are lemon, melon and cashew notes on the palate. the oak is refined, and unsurprisingly the acid is starting to mute. Its nicely balanced, and though drinking well, it may well be thinking about a slow slide to maturity.

Exceeded expectation and in a perfect drinking window right now. Concentrated flowers, pear, minerals, toast. Very well interated with developing nuance. Medium bodied and well balanced. A good food chard- enjoyed with Cantonese seafood.

Supper with Irene and Warren (Bitton Restaurant, Erskinville) : Toasty oak, butter, over stone fruit and citrus. Quite big compared to some of the other vintages I've had. Fresh though. Rather good.

Again a nice wine, with good fruit definition and length.

Lovely length with nice oak. Fruit is still fresh, with peach and melon. Nicely balanced oak makes this very enjoyable.

Notes of almond on the nose. Peach, kiwi and butter. Great length with the fruit nicely balanced with the acidity. Still like this.

Almonds and peach. Oak beautifully integrated to the fruit, with a buttery undercurrent. Amazing length, with acidity still evident. Still going strong, with at least 3 years to go, probably more.

Mini Verticals - Tasted Blind : Quite a bit of reduction initially but also graphite, pepper, lemon and hay. Light palate in comparison to the 07a, not as much presence but does flow well and has potential.

Penfolds Dinner (The Pawn - Hong Kong) : White, clear (bad lighting in the venue). Petrol/oil on the nose, some oak, and white ripe pear. Some nice "impact" onthe entry, some tannins, big ripe fruit, more like a red than white wine, crazy good, and killing the Yatt that was presented at the same time. Baldy get's some burning pork skin on the nose. With air & time and warmth this became even more complex. If you were blind folded …

2011 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Trophy Wines lunch (Darling Harbour, Sydney) : Trophy – Best 2+ year old Premium White {screwcap} Nuts and cashews and grapefruit. Instantly chardonnay, and instantly french oak. Very much Penfolds, too, if it comes to that. Polished palate, worked fruit; there’s a leesy character here too, along with the full spectrum of white-fleshed fruit flavours. Intense, medium-bodied and not without some elegance; it’s not a big thudding buttery/malo-driven palate, that’s for sure. (I think …