Yellow Tail Chardonnay 2004

Price: $8
Maker: Casella Wines
Variety: Chardonnay
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, artificial cork
Our Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Most of our sampling here is in the red wine category, but after experience with a few crowd-pleasing Yellow Tail reds we decided to try Yellow Tail Chardonnay 2004. Like their reds, this Yellow Tail product is an approachable wine. The nose wasn’t particularly strong, but yielded apple and peach. The flavor included peach, apple, melon, and spice, balanced with modest acidity. Perhaps it’s not a transcendent experience, but it’s at least as good as you’d expect for a high volume wine.

Other opinions on this wine run the gamut. LogDriver gave it four stars, noting, “this affordable Chardonnay was buttery and rich. Sweeter than usual, I even got hints of chocolate and caramel if I exhaled deeply.” April said it “exhibits a golden straw colour with ripe peach and melon aromas and sweet oak nuances. The palate is fresh and approachable with balanced acidity and a lingering finish of delicious peach, melon and tropical flavours.” CorkReview was a bit more reserved, noting, “Yellow Tail, the ford or chevy of Australian wines so it is allowed to disappoint once in a while… The nose was rather weak but did display peachy vanilla an coconut aromas, as claimed on the bottle. I just would not use the phrase ‘leaps from the glass.’” April’s experience was closest to mine, though I have to agree with CorkReview on the relatively weak nose not doing much leaping.