2008 Mahi Twin Valleys Chardonnay

On Sunday I flew off to Tauranga to host a wine tasting for the fantastic Somerset Cottage.  An unremittingly gloomy day but it didn't matter as we were all warm and toasty inside, hunkered down in anticipation of tasting some excellent French and NZ wines.

Not a dud note amongst the line-up and indeed the wines highlighted perfectly the style differences between the two countries.  This wasn't a "Us v Them" style of tasting, more an opportunity to see how wines are constructed, their flavours and aromas working in quite different ways.

I was amused by one chap who was a bit flustered to have mistaken the 2008 Mahi Twin Valleys Chardonnay as coming from France.  He seemed most apologetic and I couldn't work out why -  the wine was complex, subtle and it was an easy to see how the confusion arose. Alongside more 'typical' NZ chardonnays it was refreshing for its restrained charm and was a big hit with the tasters who loved it.

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