- Adelaide Hills, SA - $17-$23
- Screwcap
- 13.0%alc
Wirra Wirra's well hung approach to making affordable, ripe and meaty McLaren Vale reds has made them popular across Australia, but personally, I've found more freshness and balance in some of their recent outings with affordable Adelaide Hills whites. The 12th Man Chardonnay in particular, has provided a few pleasant surprises for me on recent trips to Wirra Wirra's cellar door.
Residing at the more pungent, rounded and openly aromatic end of Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc, the 2011 Hiding Champion lays out sweetly fruited aromas of gooseberries, passionfruit and bananas smoothed over by cream. It's nothing overly special or unexpected but it's clean and expressive. The palate moves along a pleasingly rich thread of creamy texture, unleashing clean flavours of banana custard and crisp green apples, the latter of which merges neatly into its acid structure. Indeed it's quite round and juicy, without the exceptional tightness or focus of top end savvys, but its balancing acidity is refreshingly brisk and tangy enough to place this squarely in the realms of a very consumer friendly wine, which might just please a few others...
ü The creamy feel (balanced by acidity) is the real highlight for me here. That factor alone moves the Hiding Champion away from many of the lean, texturally uninspiring savvys clogging up the marketplace. It's an easy drinking - smash down with seafood - summertime special. Drink to 2012.
90 points
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