WTN: Little Penguin Chardonnay 2005

South eastern Australia.

Yeah, yeah, I know, but it was gifted to us by a non-wine geek couple who knew we are wine geeks. I thanked them very much for the gift, and the thought behind it, and threw it in the back of my wine fridge.

It was pretty much what I had expected, so the good news is there were no surprises.

Fairly dark gold color in the glass.

Very sweet nose, with brown sugar, vanilla and butterscotch.

Quite thick and viscous in the mouth, spicy, sugar water. No fruit in evidence at all. Yuck.

Don't know why they bother buying grapes and then keeping them in barrels long enough to destory any trace of fruit. Wouldn't it be cheaper if they just filled oak barrels with water?

I must say, Bruce, I was bemused to see the subject of this post here!

Pretty relieved it turned out like I thought it would.....

Cynthia: Despite what I wrote, I do try very hard not to be a wine snob. I am willing to give any wine a try, even wines that I strongly believe will be junk. Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes I am surprised.

Call me a cynical bastard (or many other things), but I won't give cute Australian animal wines a try. I don't believe in mass-production 'wine as a widget' mentality and have no desire to let those wines into my home or down my gullet. If you plan on bringing a McDonalds double cheeseburger into my house, you can forget that too. I'm not a snob, just a SOB