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Sunday 27 January 2013

Tapada de Coelheiros Chardonnay 2009

16.5 / 20
Producer: Herdade de Coelheiros
Region: Alentejo
Country: Portugal

I tasted the previous vintage of this wine a couple of years ago and I remember not being particularly impressed. I felt it was a nice wine, but not remarkable - although I can see from the taste note that this wasn't a typical heavy, oaky and buttery chardonnay.

This vintage seems to be a notch up - the wine style brings to mind the drier Chardonnays from Bourgogne, not Chablis but almost there. Green apples in the nose, some dried almonds and a slight vegetable background, which are later complemented by a mineral, chalky scent.

Very interesting in the palate, with a fresh, crispy acidity and a remarkable dryness, leaving a mineral, chalky feel in the mouth. This is a very elegant wine, with the fruit notes (mainly green apples) mixing with some citrus and the mentioned mineral notes to make a very composed wine that has a lot of structure without relying in the usual oak, buttery excesses.

As it breathes and is exposed to air, this starts to gain some of the heavier Chardonnay notes, boiled apples and pears coming to the front, along with some heavier oak notes - so it loses some of that mineral, chalkier feel and starts feeling like a more new world Chardonnay.


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