BORROWING FROM BURGUNDY

A VINTAGE in Burgundy last year has inspired a Hunter Valley winemaker to duplicate the experience back home. Usher Tinkler of Poole's Rock winery was so impressed with his time at Domaine Sauzet in Puligny-Montrachet that he will employ the same winemaking for a small parcel of his 2009 Hunter chardonnay. "It will be exactly the same chemical analysis, exactly the same process, very similar oak and I look forward to seeing how it turns out," he says.

The wine may eventually become a component of the 2009 Poole's Rock chardonnay. Usher worked under Gerard Boudot at Domaine Sauzet and was impressed with his techniques, which included hand sorting the grapes, pressing to one tank and then oxidatively handling the wine with exposure to air. The result, says Usher, was a wine with texture and strong secondary characters, rather than the fruit dominance so often seen in Australian chardonnay.