Chardonnay ALL day! No better pairing than a beautiful Chardy to go with the rich flavours from the Chicken & Butterbean Cassoulet. 

Tiny mouthfuls of deliciously light canapes deserve perfectly elegant bubbles with a delicate fruitiness with a soft fizz ideally in a dry style.

Ingredients

Method

Quite unlike like Miles Raymond in the awesome film ‘Sideways’ … if anyone orders Merlot, I’m staying. I am very happy to drink f%^&ing Merlot!

Merlot doesn’t get much love here in Australia – variously accused of being thin and reedy (region too cold) or soft and fat (region too warm) but rarely awesome, refined, structured or fruit intense. Much of the blame for Aussie Merlot being ‘crap’ has been ascribed to our clonal selections of Merlot – the most widely planted being D3V14, sourced from UC Davis in California in the mid 60s. It can make superb wine but it needs to be planted in the right sites and requires a lot of work in the vineyard to produce quality fruit. Historically most Aussie producers simply haven’t treated Merlot with that level of care. ‘Proper’ varieties, like Pinot, Shiraz, Cabernet etc have more time and money spent on them in the vineyard and winery because they yield a better return

Region: Coonawarra
Proprieter: Dr Richard Hamilton
Established: 1974
Address:
Riddoch Highway
Coonawarra
South Australia, 5263

The Leconfield vineyard was first planted in 1974 with the winery built in 1975 by 76 year old Sydney Hamilton who the dream of making a classic Australian red wine. He selected Coonawarra to make these fine red wines and created legends with his early vintages including the 1978 and 1980 Cabernets.

The winery was purchased by his nephew, Dr. Richard Hamilton in 1981 who also owned other vineyards and wineries in the McLaren region.

Since its inception, Leconfield has gained an enviable reputation for its dedication and commitment to producing wines that are a unique, cellarable style of the highest quality.