Oakridge Wines Vineyard Series Willowlake Chardonnay, Yarra Valley The wines from the Willowlake Vineyard provide a fascinating contrast to those from the Henk Vineyard. First planted in 1992, the vineyard is located near Gladysdale and boasts red volcanic soils and an elevation of 170 metres. Like every wine in the Vineyard Series, minimal intervention in the winery is the name of the game. After hand harvesting, whole bunches are included in the fermentation which takes place in 500 litre French oak puncheons. After nine months maturation on yeast lees, the resulting wine serves up complex characters of citrus, nectarine, fresh dough and gun flint. In a word, its sublime.

The De Bortoli Windy Peak Chardonnay is vibrant yellow with green hues, shows fig-like fruit aromas with barrel ferment characters. The full flavoured palate of melon and fig has great mouth feel and texture.

Brilliant straw colour with a hint of green around the edges and watery hue. Intermeshed aromas of cashew, delicate white peach, biscuity oak, light toast and spice. Elegant with light to medium weight and excellent rounded creamy like textural qualities the palate possesses flavours of delicate white peach, cashew, nougat and spicy biscuity oak. Clean dry finish. Aftertaste of white peach, cashew and lightly toasted biscuity oak. Ageing: Drink over the next year. Food: Chinese steamed chicken.

David Bicknell is a Chardonnay perfectionist with a passion for terroir and contrasts in the characters of different vineyard sites. In the glass: Bright fine straw with a green hue. On the nose: Fabulous purity and lift with ripe, complex stonefruit combining with lees and struck match magic. On the palate: A complex funky monster! It shows tremendous depth and umami being satiny soft throughout with amazing refined power and balance and extraordinary length and persistence. Classy!

WinemakingAll fruit was hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed. The cuvee taille (first cut free-run juice) was settled naturally overnight prior to racking to a mix of stainless steel tank and large format old barrels for fermentation.Fermented and aged separately in small batch lots on settled lees for nine months. The blended wine then underwent secondary fermentation in the bottle. This wine has been aged for an extended period on its autolysing yeast lees for more than four years to garner richness and complexity to its innate elegance and finesse.Winemaker's notesThe protracted growing season allowed a drawn-out ripening, resulting in an uncommon richness of flavour tempered by the abundant natural acidity contributed by the season.A bouquet of nashi pear, glazed brioche, lemon cheesecake and Amaretti buscuit. Flavours of nougat, lemon rind, jasmine and chestnut underpin a palate of steely acidity with delicated bubble, fruit weight and earthy 'sur lie' characters providing textural accompaniement, richness and creaminess to the finish. An excellent match for freshly-shucked oysters or semi-hard cow's milk cheeses.

Fruit for this wine was hand-selected from our single-site Yarra Valley vineyard. Notes of white peach, guava and rockmelon with the palate showing soft hints of lime and nashi pear.