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Bargain buy
Lindeman’s 2014 Bin 65 Chardonnay
You don’t get much for a tenner nowadays but this old favourite, now with a new-look label, ticks all the boxes for budget drinking.
It is a drink-now style wine with ripe stone-fruit and tropical fruit flavours that’s soft and smooth on the palate with only the merest hint of oak influence.
It’s nicely balanced and food friendly, a good partner for poultry or full-flavoured seafood dishes. Easy after-work drinking. $10.
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Italian flavours
Bimbadgen 2013 MCA Nebbiolo
Nebbiolo is an Italian red grape variety that is grown largely in Piedmont, where it stars in the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco.
This is an Australian take on the style from winemaker Rauri Donkin; quite a muscular wine from the Hilltops region outside Young with dark cherry, cranberry and dried flower notes and immediate drinkability.
It is part of a series launched in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art. $28.
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Something different
Gundog Estate 2014 Wild Semillon
Talented young winemaker Matt Burton’s “wild” semillon is a whole lot more funky than many of its Hunter Valley counterparts, being made using Indigenous yeast, fermentation on skins and the merest hint of residual sweetness on the palate.
He describes it as “a modern, textural expression of a classic grape variety”.
I’d say it would go delightfully with spicy dishes. $30.
