Crossroads is a vineyard from the Hawkes Bay that used to rate as one of my top picks of vineyards, however I had not had their wine for many years. To remedy that I decided to open up Crossroads Hawkes Bay Destination Series Chardonnay 2005 this evening, and found it to be okay (after a couple of glasses); in fact I did not particularly enjoy it at all to start with, but once it had aired for a while I found it significantly more pleasurable. Jane, on the other hand, thought it was great and delicious from her first mouthful (which is bizarre for Jane since she is often not particularly fond of Chardonnays).
It had a light golden hue, and was not as dark as I expected for a 2005. Initially I was getting French oak on the nose with toasty characteristics, but found that this became a lot mellower over time. To taste I found it to be a bit too acidic and bitter with a light buttery flavour at first, although not heavy with the strong French oak tendencies that can dominate some Chardonnays. It was a very full bodied wine and had a nice long tail. The taste got significantly better once it had opened up a bit and by about halfway through the bottle I was actually enjoying it significantly more. I do wonder whether I would have preferred this wine though if I was drinking it a couple of years ago.
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