2008 The Catcher Chardonnay

3457CThe 2008 The Catcher Chardonnay is 100% Chardonnay sourced from multiple vineyards (mostly from the Margaret River growing region) in Western Australia. Most of the Australian wines you see on the shelves are made from grapes grown in Southeastern Australia. Western Australia accounts for only around 5% of the total amount of wine made in Australia, but are almost 25% of Australia’s most expensive wines. The vineyards in Western Australia are mainly small, family owned, low volume wineries and the climate is closer to the south of France than to Southeastern Australia. The vineyards of Western Australia are located near the coast of the Indian Ocean, which provides the grapevines with morning fog and cooling breezes. The Catcher Chardonnay is unoaked and the alcohol content is 13.5%.

The color is pale lite beer yellow. The nose is grapefruit, dried apricots, melon and a nice delicate floral edge. This is a Chardonnay with tart, bright flavors, juicy apple leads things off, then tropical fruit, lemon/lime, tangerine, a little apple core (seeds and all). The mid palate brings in some creamy lemon chiffon and orange peel. There is enough acidity to allow this wine to pair well with food, but not too much to make it a challenge to drink on its own. The finish is fairly vibrant and quite lengthy.

The Catcher Chardonnay is a well made, tasty example of unoaked Chardonnay, this is no boring wine, it brings the flavors of a growing area that you do not see that often in the affordably priced range. As for how affordably priced it was, I found it for $4.99 in an end of the bin sale (normally it sells in the $12 range). This is the time of the year when the new vintage of wines are arriving to wine shops, bargains are available on older vintages, don’t miss out.

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About the Author
Don’t tell anyone, but there is absolutely no correlation between the cost of wine and the quality of wine.

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