Winner of the Decanter World Wine Award for Chardonnay over £10

Comparative tastings must be a bit of a let-down these days now there are fewer Dolly Parton style Chardonnays.  The other day I experienced a real party-piece New World vs Old World chardonnay comparison and it blew me away!    A number of Australian fine wine producers were over showing their wines at Smiths of Smithfield's fifth floor dining room.  They were asked to bring something old, something new  and something inspirational.   So along with some beautiful 30 year Coonawarras or 10 year old Rieslings, the choice of inspirational wines was the chance to see what these guys are really thinking about when they are making their wine these days!    Three of the red wine producers brought Italian classics with them:  Charlie Melton brought the 2001 Gran Bussia Barolo from Conterno; Ben Glaetzer showed a Super-Tuscan from Maremma and Alberto Antonini tasted his Heathcote Shiraz against a very old 1978 Conterno Barolo.     Two of the Chardonnay producers brought white Burgundy:   Vanya Cullen's inspirational wine was Domaine Leflaive 1er cru Pucelles Puligny Montrachet and Steve Flamstead, Innocent Bystander's winemaker Meursault 2004 Coche Dury.  This was such a great idea that I wonder it hadn't been done before.    As a taster, the inspirational wines "prepared" you to find the finesse and luxury (if it existed) and, any unbalance or lack of depth and nuance would be glaringly obvious.   None of the Australia wines missed a beat tasted directly after their inspirational wine, in fact it served to "place" the wines in their true company.   

  Founded in 1966 by Di and Kevin Cullen, the winemaking is now in the hands of their daughter Vanya whose philopsophy to make wines that best express the vineyard with it's maritime climate and rocky soils has led her to organic, dry farming and biodynamic practices. 

Sources exclusively from the Cullen Estate Vineyard and the Mangan Vineyard, both of which are managed by Vanya Cullen.  The Cullen Estate vineyard was Certified Organic in 2003 and certified Biodynamic in 2004, while the Mangan Vineyard is in conversion for biodynamic certification.  Australia's first winery to achieve carbon neutral status in 2006.