I guess today's wine from
Ratscher Nussberg in the South of Styria was the most adged Austrian
Chardonnay, or of course Morillon (the Styrian term for the very same),
I had so far. The Ratscher Nussberg is one of the most renowned
vineyards of the region, therefore I had quite a lot of hope for wine
survival!
The colour of the Morillon
was surprisingly bright and seemed rather young. Surely not 10 years and more. The nose needed about an hour to open up. Before it just
showed fragrances of petrol, detergent powder and lame fruit. Then, far more
nutty (hazelnuts) and exotic fragrances, like pine apple and traces of
excessively ripened lemons, evolved. A cream cheese creaminess seemed
detectable as well. A bit of an extraordinary nose impression I might
say. Anyway, one other mentionable impression was the oak – still
plenty of it. The taste was pretty creamy, not as cream cheese creamy
as I mentioned earlier. More like typical oak influenced Chardonnay
vanilla creaminess. A relativly strong one. Well, oak was another central term in describing this
Morillon. It was present. Nicely present, but maybe a bit too much
for such an aged fellow. Luckily the fruit impressions were very
distinct and refined. I got flavours of aged lemons, a potpourri of exotic fruits (mainly pine apple) and a fair amount of slightly sugared apricots. Not to forget an almost fresh, but stern mineral touch. In addition to the very lively fruit the flavours of mildly austere nuts seemed to provide this wine with a few expected characteristics of an aged Chardonnay. Otherwise I would have never thought of an aged wine. I should not forget to mention one last, but unfortunately to me rather important, central term! Alcohol! For me it was simply too present and too much. At every stage in the "drinking process"! I think the overall balance of the Morillon suffered a bit due to the high booze!
Taking this and other impressions into account, still a
decent **** wine experience!
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