Giesen Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2012 – $

This wine was a nice surprise. You can see I liked it cos the glass is empty. Can’t say I recall ever having a Giesen Brothers wine before. This one impressed for value at a supermarket tasting (I can be waylaid by many things, and one of those is definitely a supermarket tasting…)

Pure pale yellow. 13.5%. Leggy. I liked the creamy oat-y buttery characters in this budget wine. Pleasant fruit weight, sweetness balanced with citrus, some elegance; expresses vine ripeness, and punches above it’s weight. It rewards with further development in the bottle if you can leave some in the fridge for a couple of days. 3+