CREDARO 1000 Crowns Chardonnay, Margaret River The Credaro family, originally from northern Italy, settled in Margaret River in 1922. Brothers Cesaro and Olympio worked in agriculture and the timber industry and helped build the regions first bridges, railways and major roads. The family also made wine every year for themselves and their neighbours. Commercial involvement in the wine industry had to wait until the 1980s, when the Credaros began supplying other established Margaret River wineries. In 2019 the family owned and/or managed 110ha of vineyard over five sites across the region and built a 1200-tonne winery near Yallingup in northern Margaret River, in 2003. 1000 crowns (nominally $500) was the Credaro familys original investment and the name is today applied to their flagship wines. The 1000 Crowns Chardonnay typically shows fragrant white peach and citrus aromas with pear and nougat nuances. The palate is rich with flavours of stonefruits, grapefruit and citrus blossom complemented by a creamy texture from lees influence. A fine acid line provides a mineral framework and fruit flavours generally linger through a long, flavoursome finish.

The wine shows an amazing length of flavor and mouthfeel with strong, clean acid on the finish and some secondary characters derived from the slight solids ferment. A great example of Hunter chardonnay with its the citrus/acid backbone, which is a benefit of no malolactic fermentation.

Two words come to mind when you mention great Australian Merlot. Jim Irivne. Jim's Grand Merlot is the benchmark of complex and elegant Merlot in Australia and his Eden Valley vineyards are the perfect place to produce this iconic wine.

Fruit for this wine is sourced from nine rows of P58 clone chardonnay planted on East West rows directly outside the winery doors. Once harvested the fruit was whole bunch pressed to French oak barriques (50% new) with Indigenous yeast fermenting the un-clarified juice. Barrel maturation took place on lees over the next ten months during which the chardonnay was stirred fortnightly.

Pale gold in the glass, with green highlights. The nose is lifted and aromatic with white blossom, ripe, yellow stonefruits, toasty oak characters, and a complex nuttiness, shot through by minerality. The palate is rich and textural, with layers of fruit, balanced by citrus-like acidity. Long and finely detailed on the finish. 100% Chardonnay from vineyards in the small appellation of Ladoix.The soils of the upper slopes are pebbly and reddish (iron-rich olite) with a high limestone content and quite marly. These suit great white wines. The grapes are harvested by hand and then directly pressed in a pneumatic press. Alcoholic fermentation takes place entirely in French oak barrels, of which 30% are new. The lees are stirred (bâtonnage) occasionally during ageing, which lasts 10 months. Jaffelins history is inseparable from that of the Collégiale Notre Dame de Beaune (the Notre Dame collegiate church in Beaune). Over the centuries, their cellars have housed the wines of the Collégiale and the Cardinals. The cellars changed ownership in 1816, when the Jaffelin brothers established themselves as negociants in the region. Today their wines rest in the monastic tranquility of the Chapitres cellars, just as they did eight centuries ago. Jaffelin entered a new chapter in its history in 2004, after completely renovating the vat room, and equipping it with modern winemaking equipment. They strive to bring out the Burgundy terroirs, cru by cru, wine by wine, at every stage of the winemaking process.

Pristine concentration and complexity of favour are the hallmarks of Simmonet-Febvre, a revered maker in Chablis. Stonefruits and ruby grapefruit with grilled nuts, owing no doubt to Simmonet-Febvre's insistence on ageing their Premier-Cru wines on lees for over a year. Has all the zippy-freshness you would expect from a high-level Chablis.

The wine expresses characters of lemon curd, glazed apricot Danish, ginger snap and orange blossom team with savoury underlying buckwheat, lanolin and toasty char complexity. These work in concert with a tactile calcareous interplay underpinning a silky pear-like texture. A lingering line of acidity provides the backbone but allows for the richness, weight and flavour, directing to a resounding and expansive finish. where body, flavour & palate weight co-exist with structure, texture and restrained acidity. Complex fruit characters of white nectarine, saffron, Pink Lady apple, chamomile flower, cashews and Leatherwood honey work in concert with a tactile interplay of chalk, silkiness and Beurre Bosc pear-like texture. Subtle acidity provides the backbone conveying the fruit and weight to a resounding finish.

Conceived as a white wine development program, the Bin 51 Riesling soon became one of Penfolds' star performers. Eden Valley is an obvious choice of region for Riesling due to the higher altitude and cool climate. The wine offers delicate aromas of fresh cut apples and pears with a twist of lemon and minerality towards the end. A great deal of fruits and acidity makes for an interesting white wine with propensity to age gracefully if carefully cellared.

Pale, straw colour with insinuations of green. Overt, ripe varietal fruit characters on the nose - pineapple, citrus and nectarine derived are from the warm vintage conditions. Mineral characters, orange blossom and almond meal along with some lees derived creaminess are all balanced within this multi-dimensional palate.