Green tea, apricots and crushed rocks

These were some of the 'notes' offered up by an Australian Chardonnay I tasted at the Vancouver Wine Tasting Festival last night. Green tea and apricots is a stretch for me but I suppose it might be possible for others, but crushed rocks? That is taking it too far!! And I promise I am not making this up - it appeared on the label of the Adams Road Chardonnay 2005.

Now I had a fantastic time at this wine tasting event and for the first hour or so I sniffed into the wine to try and detect some of these wild flowers and fruits, I swilled and then I sipped, well slugged, it back. I could tell if it was light or heavy and whether I liked it or not but really identifying the other delicacies was beyond me. But at this point I still bought into it. But by the time I reached the crushed rock description I started to wonder if this isn't all a big con. Can anyone really taste these things? Or is it a bit like that story "The Emperor's New Clothes"?

As an aside, I'll recap that story now in case it was just a British thing and it's a cool story in case you haven't heard it. Basically, the Emperor's dress maker for some reason had a grudge against the Emperor and decided to get revenge. The Emperor was very snobbish and needed to look very grand and important. He demanded that the dress maker make him the most lavish robe ever and search the whole kingdom for the best materials. After a few weeks the dress maker called the emperor for his first fitting. "Have you got the VERY best material?" roared the emperor to the dress maker. The dress maker responded not only had he got the best material it was very very special because it could only be seen by the wisest people. Well did the emperor ever like that. So, you might be guessing what is coming next..... and you're right on the mark. There was NO material! But the emperor of course didn't want to be accused of being stupid and went along with it. And demanded that all of his employees came to inspect the gown (as a way of seeing if they were clever or not) of course they all ended up seeing him butt naked! But the majority of them pretended they too could see the beautiful material. I forget the ending, perhaps the emperor caught a cold and died, or perhaps the dress maker just had a good chuckle!

Anyway, do you think all the thousands of people at this wine tasting could really taste the tropical fruit, bird and flower aromas they were supposed to be tasting? Can anyone? Or is everyone just pretending to prove they have a sophisticated palete?

On a different note, while i couldn't taste the caramel in my glass of Perrins Reserve Cotes Du Rhone Rouge, I could in this delicious milk and white chocolate caramel filled chocolate from Perdy's. I had to take a photograph it was so good. I had to try 4 of them to check I wasn't mistaken. That's probably why I don't feel too good today. Nothing to do with all those different grapes and tannins playing football with my brain cells of course.

Thanks Karen for the free ticket (she is with me in this pic). I had a great time with you. And of course I loved being "Media" and not having to queue!