Big White Chardonnay
Winery: None (Produced and bottled for Fine Wines of Australia)
Style: Dry White
Year: 2004
Price: 1.75 L - $7.99.
Rating: 7/10

I don't know what's worse: glamorizing the wine with too many fruit, herb, and melon descriptives, or in the case of the Australians, glamorizing the particular animal on the label. In this instance a white kangaroo with "distinctive narrow hands and forward focusing eyes for a wide field of vision". But given the fact that this wine doesn't really come from an established winery, but rather an Australian marketing firm, it's less of a surprise. In fact their website claims, "Big Red and White have been designed exclusively for the U.S. market.We have created these brands with recognizably Australian labels and extraordinarily unique POS (point of sale) to accompany. The POS is extremely eye-catching and will ensure that the brands gain high consumer awareness and sales". Actually their site hasn't been updated and this wine is still referred to as Great White, with a man eating shark on the label. Evidently some consumer testing hinted that these guys should revert to a more friendly white kangaroo (even though this particular breed is pretty adept in battle according to the back label). Okay, enough, what about the wine?

In a word, decent. For eight bucks you won't go wrong. At first sip it's very much like a Yellow Tail chard...Lot's of pear and some melon, slightly sweet and short on oak. But the big difference is that a Yellow Tail doesn't leave that slightly tannic "off" taste after you've swallowed that's common with so many jug chards from Australia. I say slightly, and to some it won't be recognizable, especially with food. But as an aperitif, if you like this style of wine, go for the slightly more expensive Yellow Tail.

~bubba