Hidden Bench Tete de Cuvee Chardonnay 2009 ($45, winery, 93 points) — The 2008 version of this top Chardonnay, sourced from the best barrels from Felseck and Rosomel vineyards, was my white wine of the year in 2011 and the 2009 vintage follows closely in those footsteps. Tete de Cuvee is such a complex and contemplative wine. It makes you think and challenges your senses with the evolving nuances that change constantly in the glass. “A wine drinker’s Chardonnay,” said Hidden Bench owner Harald Thiel. For me, it’s exactly what I look for in a good wine; complexity, balance, integration of flavours and a finish that lasts for minutes. This is a young wine and quite tight on the nose, however, the baked apple, brioche and elegant oak stylings are beginning to emerge and rise above the stony bed of minerality. It is chock full of creamy-toasty pear-apple fruit and roasted hazelnuts on the palate. A minute later there’s a shot of citrus zest chiming in. All of those swirling flavours are bolstered by fine oak spice and lifted by a vein of acidity that brings balance to the package. For deep thinkers and those who like to be challenged by their wine.