Lark Hill Biodynamic Chardonnay
Lark Hill's Chardonnay is a classic cool-climate Chardonnay that displays the trademark white peach, melon and fig characters. Balanced with some lovely fruit weight is the acid length that is present in all of Lark Hill's wines. Using wild ferments and 10 months on lees in barrel, this Chardonnay joins the throng of great
Dalwhinnie Moonambel Chardonnay
The 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of Dalwhinnie Chardonnay in the Pyrenees in western Victoria, and the wine is still not missing a beat. With less oak used now than in previous vintages, the wine exhibits magnificent citrus and mineral flavours and aromas with a delicate honey flavour notes and texture. A truly elegant wine.
Paringa Estate The Paringa Pinot Noir
Hand-crafted from a single vineyard site, The Paringa is a Pinot Noir of utmost class, pedigree and intensity. Made from specifically selected barrels of Pinot Noir that were clearly superior at the time of blending and bottling, the wine is a powerful amalgamation of spice, cherry and charry oak characters with a palate of extreme persistence and integrity. Yet another Lindsay McCall masterpiece.
Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay
Hunting Hill is situated on the hillside just opposite the winery and produces beautifully floral and perfumed Chardonnay with a distinctly liner and long palate.
Fraser Gallop Parterre Chardonnay
The wines of Fraser Gallop Estate are intensely flavoured, textured and complex. Only the finest quality French oak barrels are used for all Fraser Gallop Estate wines, with very specific Bordelais coopers used for the Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blends, and Burgundian coopers for the Chardonnay. The complete winemaking process takes place at the estate - picking to vinification to barrel maturation to bottling to cellaring. Fraser Gallop Estate is an estate grown, produced and bottled wine. Flavours of lemon curd and grapefruit with searing length. A wine with clarity and finesse. A tightly focussed and very precise wine showing seamless fruit purity with the lightly toasted French oak very much in the background. Crystalline acidity and a mouth-watering finish complete this Chardonnay.
Yabby Lake Pinot Noir
Yabby Lake Pinot Noir has an intense and complex aroma with great depth of character. Bursting with red and dark fruits, the wine is fine and complex with a long, juicy palate. There is excellent persistence on the polished finish.
Giant Steps Tarraford Chardonnay
Located in a protected valley, Tarraford Vineyard is cooler than its neighbouring sites. A bright and fruit-driven Chardonnay, expect citrus and tropical fruit aromas of orange, pineapple and passion fruit on the nose. A medium bodied wine on the palate, it's delicate and fresh with tropical and citrus flavours. You'll be surprised by its creamy texture and refreshing acidity which supports the lingering tropical flavours through the long finish. 'Winemaker Steve Flamsteed's chardonnays are Yarra benchmarks. This has syrupy white peach, grapefruit, herb and mealy aromas that build in the mouth, finishing long and stylish.' - Score 94 Value Good. - Age, Melbourne, 27 Aug 2013, by Ralph Kyte-Powell. Gold Medal | Royal Melbourne Wine Show 2014.
Levantine Hill Yarra Valley Chardonnay
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.
CAROLINE LESTIME, Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune Sous Eguisons
The vineyards of Hautes-Côtes de Beaune (High Slopes of Beaune) may be 80% Pinot Noir but it is Chardonnay that occupies many of the best sites, like this one, Sous Eguisons (Under the cliff of Eguisons), bordering Saint-Aubin, facing south-east and protected from the cold northerly winds (and frosts) that can be hazardous at this relatively high altitude (430-450m). One hectare of roughly 10,000 vines are trained low and were planted between 2002 and 2005 in limestone-rich soil. Caroline Lestimé has enhanced the reputation of this fine producer since taking over from her famous father, Jean Noel Gagnard, in 1989. Jean Noel Gagnard handed his eponymous Domaine to his daughter Caroline Lestimé in 1989. She had studied business in Paris, before returning to the village to take over the reins of the family estate, and had to handle male chauvinism at its most rampant. Nonetheless, she has followed her own convictions, and enhanced (rather than diminished) the reputation of this fine producer. In the vineyard, she uses no fertilisers or herbicides, but has not taken hold of the biodynamic bible. - James Halliday
Domaine Olivier Guyot Marsannay La Montagne Blanc
Quite full and expansive on the nose with seductive creme patissiere, pear, spice and gentle wood notes. The palate is not quite as full as the nose suggests - the wine is seductive in the mouth - but finishes with a tangy lemon acidity combined with a creamy texture. Balanced and thought provoking.