JC's Own Morialta Chardonnay 2020

Stuart McCloskey “The bouquet is glorious and flows to a rich and moreish tune of stonefruit, spiced, poached apple & pear, honey, pineapple, oatmeal, almond, confit lemon and lime leaf. Glimmers of flint / minerals along with the faintest whiff of struck match. The palate opens to ripe citrus and cooling stone fruits. Minerality and freshness aplenty along with textural grip from chalk and flint. There’s a briny edge which I really like. Wonderfully mouth filling, unctuous, whilst cleansing at the same time. Superb wine, incredibly controlled, tremendously complex, but and very much like the man behind the wine, in a quiet way. A brilliant, top drawer release. Drinking now (decant for 30 mins) to 2030. Served using Zalto Burgundy glassware.”

Jaysen Collins - "Being a Barossa guy at heart, I’ve always worked with varieties that fit in this landscape, think Viognier, Marsanne, Riesling, Semillon. So, for the past decade or more I’ve been ageing these broader white varieties on lees for nearly a year - I love the texture it builds and the body and character it gives.

I wanted to push this ‘sur lie’ technique a bit further and I needed a variety that would have the balance of acidity and structure that would handle extended lees ageing in barrel. Chardonnay was the obvious choice, and with great vineyard sites in the Adelaide Hills under an hour away, there was no reason not to take a punt and have a go.

For me this example of chardonnay shows a bit of my Barossa breeding, a bit more oxidised, structured and full bodied than the normal hills examples, but the zippy acidity that interplays with toasty lees characters was exactly what I was looking for."