Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Hardy's Chardonnay 3 Liter Box


Have you tried this wine? If so, please add your own comment.

Hardy's 2007 Chardonnay
Hardy's Stamp of Australia
South Eastern Australia
3 liter box, 2007
Alcohol 13.5%
About $19

From the box:
A fresh, lively wine featuring ripe peach and tropical fruit flavors with integrated oak.

Reviews in the News:


Dan Berger San Francisco Chronicle May 15, 2003. Tasted assortment.
Of the four I sampled, the best was the 2002 Hardy's Stamp Chardonnay. The wine is fresh and lively, with floral and citrusy aromas and flavors, dry but not austere, and with a bit less oak than I expected. It's an altogether pleasing if easy-drinking wine that would match well with seafood in light cream sauces.

Inside the box / Premium wine is no longer strictly a bottled affair


Wines & Vines, August 1, 2003
Boxed wine sure has changed since the days of crappy blush wines in a milk-crate-sized container. We just sampled the Hardys Stamp Australian Chardonnay at the Wine Brats' latest "Chefs Without Hats" event, and it not only looks respectable in its tidy box, it actually tastes good. When compared side-by-side with the company's bottled Chardonnay (Hardys sells it in 750ml bottles and in 3L casks), both wines showed crisp green apple flavors, nice balance and a refreshing lack of oakiness.
Hardys Stamp Australian Chardonnay

Laurie Daniel, August 6, 2003, the Mercury News
The best of the Hardy's Stamp wines is the 2001 shiraz ... The 2002 chardonnay is also reasonably well balanced. These are undemanding, easy-to-drink wines.

Welcome to the Mercury News on Bayarea.com


Kirby Pringle, News-Gazette, Champaigne IL, December 5, 2003
The Hardys Chardonnay had more tropical fruit flavors and a light oak toastiness. The Shiraz tasted of dark plum and cherry, with a cinnamon finish. Both rate good to very good.
News-Gazette.com: Food

Bill Daley, October 13, 2004, Chicago Tribune
2004 Hardy's Stamp of Australia Chardonnay Smells peachy, but this Aussie white needed more oomph. "Some spiciness and fruit, but not much character," one panelist said. Another noted the wine's acidity but thought it was still a bit sappy. Serve with onion dip and chips, grilled chicken kabobs with pineapple, burgers. (1 corkscrew)
Wine in a box gaining some respect

Carol Emert, January 6, 2005, San Francisco Chronicle
The 2004 Hardys Stamp of Australia South Eastern Chardonnay ($16) is marked by sweet, honey-poached pear flavors and a hint of honeysuckle. It's unusually sweet for a table wine -- it contains 4 percent residual sugar, compared to about 1 percent normally -- but is nonetheless pleasant and well- made.

A bevy of boxes have room inside for value, flavor


Colorado Springs Gazette, April 27, 2005, (third choice of five)
Hardy's Stamp of Australia Chardonnay ($14.99) -- light yellow color with a floral nose and tart, ripe apple flavor.

Judges: Boxed wines nothing to sniff at Gazette, The (Colorado Springs) - Find Articles


Frank Sutherland and Kate Sutherland, October 13, 2005, The Tennessean
2004 Hardys Stamp Chardonnay from Australia at $17.99. This wine had a green/gold color and offered aromas of apples, limes and flowers. In the mouth we found refreshing apples with just enough acidity to give the wine a mouthwatering juiciness. This wine finished as a close second in our tasting.

Boxed wines have stepped things up a notch or two


Jessie Price, 2006, Eating Well
Hardy’s, Chardonnay (Australia) 2005 $18 Straw-colored with a heady aroma of gardenia, melon and fig, this full-bodied and syrupy wine bursts from its box to fill the glass with heavy tropical fruit flavors of pineapple and mango. A rather hot finish.

Thinking Inside the Box - Eating Well


Holly Howell, May 22, 2007, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Hardy's Chardonnay 2006. I have yet to see Australia do something horribly wrong. This white wine is wrapped in tetra-pak inside a yellow box, but it is also wrapped inside a lovely cloak of oak, with a beautiful tropical fruit palate and the perfect acidity to balance. This wine beat out four other box Chardonnays that were blind tasted to dozens of folks. Grab a 3-liter box (equivalent of 4 bottles) for only $16.

Democrat & Chronicle: Holly Howell


News-Leader of Springfield, MO, August 26, 2007
Hardys 2006 South Eastern Australia Chardonnay (three-liter box/$18.99). Here is a perfect example of a modern Australian chardonnay, and an example of what can be accomplished with grapes from a fine growing area. The aroma stresses green apples, pears, melons and spice, with oak and vanilla in the background. The green apple and the melon are the most prominent flavors, with an entire collection of tropical fruits lying just offshore. This chardonnay deserves your attention, especially at the price.
News-Leader.com | Homes

Kathleen Purvis, Charlotte Observer, July 23, 2008 (judged middle of a group)
Hardy's Chardonnay, $17.99 for 3 liters: This was one of the few that had a hint of color - the rest were almost clear. The aroma had some fruitiness and a little toasted oak, while the taste had notes of lemon and green apple.
NorthJersey.com: the box wine industry is aging well

Van Miller, Charlotte Magazine, October 1, 2008
2006 Hardy's Chardonnay, Southeast Australia. Big, luscious, fruity, mouthful, light vanilla, refreshing, easy-drinking party wine. Best of all whites.
Charlotte Magazine - CharlotteMagazine.com - Drinking Outside the Box

Reviews in Blogs:

Jerry Hall, September 7, 2006, Winewaves blog
Hardy's Stamp Australia 2005 - Tasting Notes: Color: Light straw. Peach, vanilla and whiffs of smoke introduce this light, slightly sweet, fruity and tart Chardonnay. Alcohol content: 13.0%. Excellent value ($14/3.0 Liter = $3.50/750ml equivalent).

winewaves: Premium 3 Liter Bag-in-Box Chardonnay - Hardy's Stamp Australia 2005 & Black Box Monterey 2005

4 comments:

Dan said...

Hi, Kathy. I was doing a google search in an effort to find out whether or not a kind of boxed wine (Bellina brand banana wine) actually exists or not, and came across your blog. You seem to be the resident expert, so I was wondering if you could solve this mystery for me, and if, god forbid, it does turn out to be a myth, perhaps you could recommend a good box of banana wine?

I posted some pictures of the box shown in the episode on my blog http://www.danmustblog.com/ if it helps.

Thank you!!!

Dan

Matt said...

I am drinking it right now. I like it better than black box chardonnay. Nice summer night wine - Very sweet for a chardonnay, nt oaky.

Doug said...

My wife and I enjoy wine. We have a sailboat, and bottles rattling around when on a reach don't make it, so we've been looking for good boxed wines. I really enjoy the Hardy's Chardonnay. It's got more body than most boxed chards, I like the flavor. Yes, it might be a little sweater than most. It also works being a little warm, as we don't have refrigeration, and can handle an ice cube if you must. Now just need to find a good boxed red for the Admiral.

Joshua S. Sweeney said...

This blog hasn't been updated in awhile, it seems, but hopefully you're still monitoring it. I'm running a search for the best boxed wine on my blog, and so far I've had minimal luck with my fare, though I just got a sample of the Octovin Home Wine Bar's Chardonnay offering that looks promising. I'd be glad for any suggestions you might offer for me to try. Just hit me up on my blog and leave me a comment or grab my email or twitter from my contacts page if you're interested: http://blog.wine-accessorized.com

Thanks,

Josh