Brown Brothers Patricia Chardonnay is an elegant style balancing natural acidity with intense fruit flavour. Named in honour of Patricia Brown, the fruit for this exceptional white wine consists of 57% from the Brown Brothers Whitlands vineyard and the balance from Coombe Farm vineyard located in the Yarra Valley. The Yarra Valley experiences cool ripening conditions just like the Whitlands vineyard. The vineyard selection contributes to a tight style with wonderful fig and mealy characters typical of a cool climate Chardonnay.

The Piccadilly Valley welcomed the Croser family back into the Tapanappa Winery with a typical cool weather vintage of exemplary quality. Stone fruit, honeydew and lemon zest, with spicy cedar oak in support. Medium bodied, tangy lemony acidity, almond and spice, firm and flinty finish. Its a wine of structure and coiled up power. Good now, but ideally needs a couple of years in the winerack.

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.

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.

Small-batch Chardonnay from Marlborough negociants Novum. Stonefruit, cream and mineral on the nose. Flintiness meets fruit on the palate, making for a distinctive medium-bodied wine. An appealingly long finish shows this to be a top tier Chardonnay. Novum use small parcels of fruit from specially selected sites on established Marlborough vineyards to craft the best wines and expressions of terroir possible. Their first vintage arrived in 2016. Novums primary focus is on Syrah, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

A classic Peninsula Chardonnay with richness and complexity and underlying elegance. Peach and tropical fruit aromas combine well with nutty creamy oak and the palate is full flavoured and long.

Appeasing fragrances of nectarine, stonefruit, honey and lemon zest flowing from the nose mellow down to provide undertones of crème Brulee, roast nuts and citrus fruit. The supple palate features crisp and classic Chardonnay fruit elements that are balanced by the fine and refreshing acidity, leading to a lengthy and persistent climax. Grilled shellfish dishes like scallops and lobster, wild mushrooms, white truffles and hazelnut crusted chicken taste excellent with this elegant Chardonnay wine.

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.