2003 Chardonnay Walker Bay

(12.95% alcohol with a pH of 3.17; aged in 50% new oak) Healthy pale straw color. Musky aromas of peach, ginger, minerals and white truffle. Very intensely flavored and sharply delineated, in a rather pungent, Chablis-like style. Fine-grained and sophisticated, with hints of candied orchard fruits, toast, minerals and marzipan. Very long and very fresh on the aftertaste. This wine was bottled very early, in November of 2003, as Anthony Hamilton Russell believes that longer aging in oak would dry the wine. This is the estate's 21st chardonnay vintage. (My barrel sample of the 2004 showed a rather open, large-framed wine with more tropical aromas and obvious middle-palate fat and sweetness. While a bit higher in alcohol than the 2003, it will also be for earlier drinking.)