This week I wanted to share with you a wine that I thoroughly enjoyed while we were in the midst of moving house. This is the second time I’ve moved this year, and although this move was cross river rather than interstate, it has still been quite full on. It also doesn’t help that it was a start of the week move, leaving us feeling all over the place for the rest of the week, trying to find enough kitchen items to string a meal together! Luckily we’ve got most of the kitchen unpacked, and we’ve been lucky enough to have amazing people helping us out with things like Ikea assembly and unpacking boxes. Most importantly though, we’ve got the wine unpacked, which has really come in handy!

This year, my partner and I went to the Ekka, which is the Queensland show where you can go on rides, see cute animals, and eat and drink delicious food. I know there are plenty of other things there, but those are my top things to do, especially when it comes to the food and wine. They have a great fresh food pavilion where awesome producers of delicious food and wine come together. You can go around and get some tastings, and purchase the things that you like. So of course my partner and I always visit this pavilion and try pretty much all of the wine producers. This was where we found the bottle I’m reviewing this week.

Chardonnay from the Granite Belt

A few years ago we went to Stanthorpe and visited a few wineries, one of which was Granite Ridge Estate. We loved the wines they had on offer, but at the time didn’t buy many. So when we saw them at the Ekka, we took the opportunity to try their wines again. Needless to say, they were so good we ended up buying 12. We are really as bad as each other when it comes to wine, so it was only a matter of time until we ordered a whole case on a whim like this! But the deals were good, and the wine was even better. They had such a great variety on offer, and it was actually hard trying to decide on which ones we wanted!

One of the wines we ended up getting three bottles of was their First Oak Chardonnay from 2015. Now we aren’t normally white wine drinkers, and even less when it comes to Chardonnay. It’s that weird variety that at every wine tasting they tell you no one likes it, but they always offer it for tasting anyway, which makes me think this isn’t true. That or they are trying to turn people around as it does have a bit of a bad rap, and for this I am glad, because you get to experience awesome wines like this one!

My partner grabbed this bottle out because we were mid unpacking and we both had that look on our faces we get when we are seriously overwhelmed. He realised we really needed a wine, and grabbed this bottle out of my new favourite thing: our wine fridge. I was so glad he did, because I’d forgotten how good this wine was!

What I love about it

There is always a reason we buy Chardonnay, and it is because we really liked the bottle. Because we aren’t normally drinkers of this variety, I know we made a decision to purchase a certain one for a reason. This is one of those wines. At first I was amazed when he poured it by how yellow it was. I normally am not a fan of the yellow chardonnays, so I was a little skeptical. But when I tasted it I realised why we’d gotten carried away and ordered 3 bottles! It is honestly one of the best Chardonnays I’ve had in a long time.

I have to say, if you don’t like buttery chardonnay, this isn’t for you. It is quite buttery in flavour, as the colour would suggest. This isn’t wine speak either, the wine actually tastes creamy and rich, which is something you don’t often get in wines, but is a characteristic of Chardonnay that people either love and hate. What I loved about this wine is that it is so complex, and takes this creaminess to the next level. It is almost sweet, but not in a sickly way. The richness of the flavour comes together with this hint of sweet that was almost like vanilla. It was seriously good, so much so that I needed to have a second sneaky glass.

Final verdict

If you like your chardonnays, or if you are non committal to chardonnays like us, try this wine. It is awesome, and definitely up there as one of my favourite whites I’ve had in a while! I highly recommend for fending off near panic attacks when moving, or simply to enjoy on these increasingly warmer days.