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Winemaker notes Colour: Pale Gold Bouquet: Our Reserve Chardonnay has a bright and lifted nose of sweet pastry, lemon curd and fleshy white stonefruit. Palate: The palate displays a rich and layered mix of fresh stonefruit, citrus and intense vanilla bean flavours. A fine mineral thread ensures a wine of length and persistence. Viticulture The vineyard is planted on Karri loam gravel soils with underlying laterite. Vine rows run north south down a moderate north facing slope and are clone Gin-Gin with trellis structured to vertical shoot positioning. The vineyard is subject to the cool Southern Ocean breezes and ripens slowly, evenly and with naturally high acidity. Winemaking The fruit is handpicked then cooled before whole bunch pressing. New and seasoned barrels are filled directly from the press to enhance complexity. Only the free run fraction is reserved with harder pressings separated to ensure a delicate and fine expression of the fruit in this wine. The juice is left to ferment spontaneously and can take up to three weeks to ferment with some cooling at the height of ferment. After ferment the barrels are topped and gently stirred with inert gas protection monthly. A small number of barrels were encouraged to finish malolactic fermentation to ameliorate the natural acidity. After nine months in barrel the wine is assembled in tank and aged on lees to further encourage complexity.

This is a wonderfully concentrated wine. Complex on the nose with aromas of lemon, green apple and fig the palate shows lively flavours of citrus and melon and a beautifully textured crisp and long finish.

Dog Point from Marlborough in New Zealand have quickly established themselves as quality Marlborough producers with their range of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. This Chardonnay has lovely texture due to lees stirring and balanced oak influence. Hints of citrus still remain to produce a Chardonnay of versatility.

Margaret River is an under appreciated region for Australian Shiraz, and it's hard to see why with Cape Mentelle's Shiraz showing a vibrant core of blueberry, mulberry and hints of raspberry. It is well balanced with cocoa and savoury oak. The palate yet, is fine, elegant and focussed, finishing with chalky and structural tannins.

A more restrained style, Yeringberg Chardonnay has some minerally notes overlayed with subtle hints of fermentation in French oak barrels. Not an overt wine, yet possessed of impressive intensity. It should develop a soft and smooth maturity after several years in the cellar.

Vasse Felix Chardonnay is a pure, elegant and vibrant style of Chardonnay, embracing the region's powerful fruit with complexity and restraint to express the environment, with the hallmarks of Vasse Felix's premier vineyards.

Cullen, world famous for their Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot, have introduced another Cab Merlot, a distinguished offshoot of the Langton's classified Diana Madeline. Majority Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Merlot and touch of Petit Verdot gives the wine a luscious, bright cherry flavour with red berries playing their part. Aged in French oak, 40% of which was new, for one year. Delicious to serve with veal, lamb or beef today, but will also reward up to 10 years in the cellar.

The citrus rind and grapefuit lead the palate to an overall fine yet textural journey. Cape Mentelle Chardonnay had this distinctive minerally line too, apparent with focussed refreshing acidity. Faint nuancesof soft nougat and cashews also add to what is a harmonious balance and an elegant and length finish.

Occasionally, when rare parcels of particularly outstanding Beechworth grapes become available, Savaterre's wine maker Keppell Smith likes to create something unique, like this Chardonnay, and bottle it under Savaterre's Frere Cadet (Younger Brother) label. These wines are created with the same attention to detail that goes into their premium Savaterre label.