Chardonnay

18 Points - Raymond Chan "Bright straw-yellow colour with some depth, lighter on the edge. The nose is softly full and gently up-front and voluminous with aromas of yellow stonefruits in an amalgam with white peaches and a subtle mealy and nutty overlay. Medium-full bodied, the palate is stylishly up-front with flavours of ripe yellow stonefruits and peaches with nutty and savoury mineral interest. The mouthfeel has fruit richness lending rounded textures and plenty of presence. The wine flows positively along a fine phenolic line leading to a lingering dry finish of stonefruits, nuts and mealy detail. This is an elegantly rich, up-front Chardonnay with ripe stonefruit, nutty and mealy flavours with good weight, a rounded mouthfeel and a dry finish. Match with poultry, pork and veal over the next 3+ years. Hand-picked Kumeu fruit, WBP and indigenous yeast fermented, 75% in tank and 25% in seasoned oak to 13.5% alc., the wine given extended lees aging, undergoing 100% MLF"

 Decanter World Wine Awards: Bronze 2017

90 Points - Luis Gutierezz (erobertparker.com)

The just-bottled, screw-capped 2016 Felino Chardonnay was quite impressive. It's now produced exclusively with grapes grown in the Valle de Uco and was cropped from an unusual wet and cold growing season. It fermented with indigenous yeasts with full malolactic, with 15% of the volume put into neutral French oak barrels and bottled seven months after the harvest. It's very fresh and varietal, with a nose that mixes white flowers and fruit and a balsamic twist. The palate is fresh and sharp, elegant with very clean flavors, showcasing the minerality of the soils. Is this the finest Felino Chardonnay to date?

91 Points - Luis Gutierrez (erobertparker.com)

There is great purity and precision, a sharp Chardonnay with very little effect of the oak, just a spicy twist, a wine that incites you to drink with effervescent acidity that makes you salivate and cleanses your palate. Great, sharp Chardonnay.

This fruit driven unoaked Chardonnay has been produced using premium grapes from the Margaret River region. The wine exhibits the classic varietal Chardonnay aromas of peaches and citrus. On the palate, vibrant notes of stone fruit are complemented by fresh grapefruit characters and a creamy, nutty soft finish.

90 Points - Antonio Galloni

The highlight in this range from Foxglove, the 2014 Chardonnay packs a serious punch for the money. Bright, juicy and exuberant, the Foxglove Chardonnay will thrill readers looking for a budget-priced Chardonnay. Lemon peel, white flowers and mint meld together in a rich, beautifully layered Chardonnay long on class. Aging in steel and blocked malolactic fermentation keep the flavors bright, but there is no shortage of depth or intensity. This is a fabulous wine, especially considering its modest price.

95 Points - James Halliday

There is definite synergy in the blend, even it if it's the Yarra Valley that provides most of the flavour and the glue; grapefruit is in the driving seats, but there's a special texture to the mouthfeel, part fruit, part oak-derived.

92 points - James Halliday 

Gold Medal - 2018 Melbourne International Wine Competition
Gold Medal – 2017 Wine Show of Western Australia
Silver Medal – 2017 Perth Royal Wine Show

96 Points – James Halliday Wine Companion 2016 "Small batch-fermented in French oak (18.5% new) on lees for 7 months with light battonage. The combination of high quality cool grown grapes and sensitive winemaking has produced this lovely chardonnay, the first release of a chardonnay in the Senses range. Delicacy teams with intensity (an oxymoron if ever there was one), grapefruit, white peach and nectarine the drivers, not the oak."

93 Points - James Suckling.com  Monday, November 13, 2017) "A blend of six parcels this wine embodies the signature style of rich, ripe peach fruits and toasty oak warmth on the nose (20% new). The palate fuses ripe citrus and stone fruits together in a powerful, fresh and balanced mode. This is a trademark of Brajkovich – he embraces chardonnay's richness and delivers energy and flavor. Drink now."

92 Points - Lisa Perrotti-Brown "The 2015 Estate Chardonnay is more open-knit and less taut than the single vineyard wines, with an expressive nose of ripe nectarines, pink grapefruit and guava, plus underlying notes of baking bread and ginger. Medium-bodied, it offers richness and good depth in the mouth with a an approachable, refreshing backbone and great harmony."

17 Points - Jancis Robinson "Broad and opulent on the nose. Massive streak of acidity. But real grip and extract on the palate. Lovely already with strong attack. Long. Drink 2017-2026"

95 Points – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

What a wonderful Chardonnay. White peach and grapefruit, oatmeal and struck match, tight tracks of gleaming acidity, and a bullet of juicy but restrained flavour racing down them. A little flintiness. Some cashew creaminess. A tight and mouth-watering limey finish that makes you eye the level of the glass too often, and fret over it. You’d be mad not to.

96 Points - James Halliday

96 Points - James Halliday

96 Points - James Halliday

From a single vineyard in Karridale, the southernmost and coolest part of Margaret River; hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in French oak (15% new), with natural mlf; 11 months in oak with occasional lees stirring; after bottling cellared for 30 months prior to release. Still pale, bright straw-green; the bouquet has a nutty complexity to the core of pink grapefruit, the palate a bright replay of the bouquet except for the racy, minerally acidity.

David Schildknecht (robertparker.com)

The Eyrie 2011 Chardonnay is dominated by bright, juicy grapefruit and lime tinged with their piquant pips as well as with saliva-liberating salinity. Straight and penetrating as an arrow; amazingly buoyant (but then, there’s only 11.7% alcohol!). A streak of salinity serves to enhance the mouthwateringly sustained and invigorating finish. This outstanding value is apt to remain riveting through at least 2020 – a prognostication I venture with plenty of track record to back it up.

94 Points - Bob Campbell MW

The first Bilancia Chardonnay I have tasted. Fruit from La Collina vineyard and Bridge Pa Triangle. Indigenous yeast and 15 months in oak without fining or cold stabilisation. Attractive, elegant chardonnay with tight citrus, mineral, struck flint and savoury yeast lees and spicy oak flavours. A classy chardonnay with development potential.

97 Points - James Halliday

The wine lives up to its reputation as one of Australia's greatest chardonnays, and you wonder why it isn't more frequently mentioned in dispatches. The answer is at least partly due to the very small amounts judged by Petaluma to be up to the strict standards set. Grapefruit leads the superb flavours of the palate, white peach in close attendance. The acidity is precise, the oak merely a means to an end.

94 Points - James Suckling.com  (Monday, November 13, 2017) "Peach fruit aromas are at their seductive best here. The warmth of sweetly spicy and toasty oak adds plenty of interest, too. Masses of fleshy, palate-soaking presence in the mouth, while acid zips around below like an underground rail network, unseen and yet essential to everything working. The phenolics are spot on. Lemon cream finish. Drink now."

17.5 Points - Jancis Robinson "Very savoury nose with just a hint of struck match. Intensity and vibrancy – very winning already. Bit of a golden boy. Real reverberation. Beautiful balance."

Gold Medal - 2015 National Wine Show of Australia

96 points - Stuart McCloskey

I was curious to sample the ’05 as I am not a huge fan of sparkling Rosé. A beautiful copper colour with cranberries, red stone fruits, sweet raspberry, orange peel and a little rosewater. In fact, the wine builds with endless layers and has the structure (as with the entire Arras range) of great, Grand Cru Champagne. There’s no holding back with this wine – It’s been released to be relished. There’s real depth and a density on show which takes this Rosé to the head of the class and deservedly so. I could imagine a dozen grilled, Loch Linnhe langoustines partnered with a chilled bottle of the ’05. Simply, heaven.

Acclaimed Margaret River winemaker Julian Langworthy and wife Alana are turning heads with their own boutique label, Nocturne.

This Chardonnay is their take on the famous regional style, with great success. Born and raised in the region Julian has developed close relationships with some of Margaret River's finest growers, with this Chardonnay coming from a single vineyard in Treeton, planted to some of the region's best-suited clones.

In the hands of Julian, this fruit absolutely sings. It's a polished version of Margaret River Chardonnay with ample weight whilst maintaining and elegant balance.

This is an exciting new addition to the Margaret River Chardonnay landscape.

98+ Points - Stuart McCloskey 

97 Points - James Halliday

This Chardonnay for the Awakening range has been produced using handpicked fruit from the Watershed Estate vineyard. The wine exhibits intense aromas of citrus and stone fruit accompanied with notes of spice and roasted cashew nuts. On the palate, the dense creamy texture is complemented by grapefruit and mineral notes followed by a long nutty finish.

Steven Spurrier - “Eileen Hardy Chardonnay is, in my view, the Grange of Australian white wines”.

98 Points - Stuart McCloskey "Less expressive than some 2015’s however, decanting for thirty minutes to an hour and serving in a large Burgundy glass brings this wine alive. The wine is silky, graceful with mouth-coating waves of life affirming minerality. Real breadth and depth here with a laser-like focus. I love the juicy yellow stone fruits and spices. I imagine this will be utterly spectacular in another 6-8 years. It is the nectar of the Aussie Gods and would shame many a white Burgundy at double the price. I recommend drinking this stupendous wine from now to 2028 and beyond (in good cellar conditions)."

Tasmanian and Yarra Valley fruit bursting with flavour and complexity in equal measure, yet linear in its profile. An amalgam of excellent fruit, mouth-watering sulphides, seamless oak integration and zest appeal, with everything reined-in by superfine acidity. Chardonnay nirvana well and truly thriving in Australia.

95 Points - Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)

This is a beauty. Powerful but graceful and refreshing. Layered with judicious sweet and spicy oak, sumptuous, fresh stone fruit and green apple flavours, detail in ‘mineral’ charm and ‘savoury note’. So much going on. And though so much going on, such harmony and precision, despite the assertive nature of the wine. It’s regal stuff here, done so well.

96 Points - James Halliday

The second (1.3 tonnes) vintage from the home block, hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in French barriques (50% new, 50% 1yo), matured for 18 months, plus a further 24 months in bottle, 90 dozen made. A beautifully detailed wine, all its components perfectly lined up, flowing seamlessly across the palate, stone fruit tempered by just-so citrussy acidity, the oak absorbed.

95 Points - Bob Campbell

First release of a new Marlborough chardonnay. Full-flavoured, with salty, briny, citrus, toasty yeast lees and spicy oak flavours. Lively, tangy wine with a pleasing texture and lengthy finish. Intensity and power suggest good cellaring potential. Clearly one to watch 

Lisa Perrotti-Brown (RobertParker.com)

The 2016 Chardonnay Mannequin has delicate peach blossoms and ripe pears notes with hints of ginger, freshly baked bread and allspice. Full-bodied with a seductive oiliness to the texture, it fills the palate with spicy pears plus savory/toasty nuances, finishing long and perfumed. 8,100 cases produced.

91 Points - Luis Gutierrez (erobertparker.com)

The 2015 Bramare Chardonnay Marchiori Vineyard was sourced from 19-year-old vines in the Marchiori Vineyard in Perdriel, Luján de Cuyo. The hand-harvested clusters were pressed and the juice fermented with indigenous yeasts, with spontaneous malolactic and an élevage of one year in 50/50 new and used French oak barrels. This is always a ripe Chardonnay with pit fruit and yellow flower aromas, hints of honey and beeswax. The palate is round and lush, with nice ripe fruit and very tasty flavors.

97+ Points - Stuart McCloskey

More intense, open-knit and richly textured compared to the 2015 although, both vintages are matched by their exquisite balance. The wines aromatics (honeyed citrus fruits, waves of minerals and a little maritime note) unfold with 20 minutes in a decanter (advised for ultimate satisfaction). The palate is medium to full-bodied, ripe and endlessly long. The play between textured weight and acidity is fantastic – A perfect marriage of cohesion and completeness. Given my experiences with mature Eileen Hardy Chardonnay’s, the ’14 is difficult to pin down to specific flavours. This wine is more to do with sensation as the palate feel is incredible. I do feel the 2015 has the slight edge and will become one of their best vintages over the past three decades however, there is something irresistibly special about the 2014.

97 Points - James Halliday

From the home vineyard at Forest Grove planted '04, hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in French oak (50% new), mlf, matured for 18 months, plus a further 24 months in bottle. I'll bet every vine receives personal attention; as each year passes, the style of the Flowstone wines becomes more clearly marked. Here it is the depth and texture of the fruit, mlf and oak in measured support for each other that establishes the special quality the wine has (not to mention 2 years cellar maturation).

Halliday Wine Companion  Awards
'The Best of the Best': Varietal Winners - Best Chardonnay 2019

98 Points - James Halliday Top 100 2017 

97 Points - James Halliday

From the 0.5ha planting in ?04, hand-picked; fermentation and mlf in French oak (50% new); 17 months in barrel; once bottled, held for 36 months before release. Counterintuitively, elegance and finesse, rather than complexity, define the character of this wine, and underwrite its extreme length. A quite beautiful display of perfectly ripened chardonnay vinified by a master.

97 Points - James Halliday

The first crop from the 0.5ha planting in '04, hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed; fermentation and mlf in French oak (50% new); 17 months in barrel with occasional stirring; once bottled it is held for 36 months before release. The mouthfeel is exceptional, almost succulent, and yet full of activity as the oak and mineral components also find the taste receptors; the length of the palate is awesome. 75 dozen made.

  Decanter WWA 2017: Platinum: Best NZ Chardonnay

 International Wine Challenge: Silver 2017

97 Points - Bob Campbell 

 Margaret River Wine Show 2017: Gold Medal

 Decanter World Wine Awards: Bronze 2018

Halliday Wine Companion Awards - Top Rated Chardonnay 2019

• Royal Queensland Wine Show 2017 - Gold
• Royal Adelaide Wine Show 2017 - Gold
• Perth Royal Wine Show 2017 - Gold
• Wine Show of Western Australia 2017 - Gold
• National Wine Show of Australia 2017 - Gold
• Royal Hobart Wine Show 2017 - Gold

97 Points - James Halliday "Five gold medals in the second half of '17 will have been added to by the time of publication. Mainly sourced from Wilyabrup, the wine has a special type of phenolic grip (not limited to white wines) that makes the taster incapable of doing anything other than swallow it (bad phenolics have the opposite effect). A special wine, with perfect fruit/oak balance."

* Available for delivery from Monday 22nd April 2019 *

Royal Adelaide Wine Show 2018: 

Best Chardonnay & Most outstanding white wine

Margaret River Wine Show 2018: Gold

Perth Royal Wine Awards 2018: Gold

Royal Hobart Wine Show 2018: Gold

Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2018: Gold

Sydney Royal Wine Show 2018: Gold

98 Points - Decanter

"Sweet rock melon aromas. Nice focus, with the palate holding back before catapulting the fruit long and hard. Grapefruit oil and roast lime notes. Terrific clarity and zestiness, with verve and coolness. Very Margaret River! Not trying to be Burgundy. Terrific purity and charge, with restraint." Sarah Ahmed

"I love the purity, then the layers of pristine fruit; a touch of the Far East, but then Provençal stone fruit, with nutty, compressed pineapple on the mid-palate. It is persistent with a lovely gentle, nutty background." Roger Jones

"Stylish oaked aromas with a subtle vein of nutty complexity behind bright, fresh, apple fruit. A delightfully intense and fruity palate with deceptive weight and length. Needs time to unfurl, but this really has a lot going for it. A fabulous wine with great potential." Anthony Rose

The 2013 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is is sourced from 77% Martinelli Charles Ranch Vineyard; 23% Platt Vineyard. This elegant Chardonnay delivers pretty aromas of fresh sliced pear, quince, white peach, lemon zest along with vanilla blossom, sliced almond and flinty minerals. It is beautifully balanced with wonderful acidity leading up to the bright, focused finish. This is showing beautifully right now and should continue to do so over the next few years. (Best 2016-2021)

97 Points - Stuart McCloskey

By far, the standout wine from the Talbott samples which I received. The nose unfolds with some aeration but retains its tight, mineral and steely fresh character – a nutty character unfolds after a while. The palate offers a degree of richness but has a tight and elegant core which is most attractive. Buttered citrus, stone fruits and tropical layers in abundance with touches of toast and oak. The mouthfeel and textural grip are impressive which support the wine’s overall harmonious balance. Lovely acidity and vitality which contrasts beautifully with the ripe fruit and toasty, mealy flavours. This is just beginning to show its full potential and will comfortably cellar for 5+ years. Excellent and served using Zalto Bordeaux glassware.

97 Points - James Halliday

The colour is still a pale quartz-green, the freshness excellent; the most remarkable part of this wine is its combination of finesse, length and intensity of varietal fruit flavour, in turn based on the laser etching of Tasmanian acidity. The drink to date may prove conservative.

Gavin Chanin's 2015 Chardonnay Los Alamos Vineyard captures a striking middle ground that expresses both the richness of the year and the focus that is possible from this site. As always, the flavors are bright and focused, but there is quite a bit of textural depth and richness. This is very nicely done.

99 Points - Stuart McCloskey

The 2014 Chanin Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay has a terrific purity and class. With aromas and flavours of white peach, stone fruits, white flowers and toasted bread it is elegant and balanced, with both richness and freshness - a classic, and beautifully made Chardonnay.

95 Points – Bob Campbell

Unusually rich, fleshy Chardonnay in a mouth-filling and accessible style that makes a change from the rather more steely wine I expect under this label. Quite oaky with ginger, ripe peach, tree fruits and a hint of honey. A real surprise.

92+ Points - Antonio Galloni 

92 Points – Antonio Galloni

The 2014 Chardonnay Holly's Cuvée is a blend of the three Chardonnays made under the Varner label. Candied lemon peel, orange, mint and honeyed notes give the Holly's its rich, luscious personality. Drink this open-knit, generous Chardonnay over the next handful of years. The 2014 is a blend of 75% Bee Block, 20% Amphitheater Block and 5% Block.