Notes of anise and freshly cracked pine carry the nose while the palate shifts to a mix of blue and black berries and a bit of violet candy. The palate is silken and a bit warming. This is a richer expression of Pinot built for those wanting a fuller mouthfeel and flavour from the variety. At the same time, it continues to carry the more lifted palate and slightly elevated acidity of the region.

Allow plenty of air upon opening as the aromas start out quite subtle but open to reveal citrus zest accenting a forest of berries, dried pine and fresh mushroom. The palate is a bit reductive, but it weaves into the savoury mushroom notes to create an earthier, deeper-toned expression of Pinot and does open up with air. The tannin is very fine grained and is in good balance with lengthy acidity. This wine will do best with a meal of savoury vegetable dishes and even grilled fish.

Creamy pear lightly spiced opens the aromas, followed in the palate by a squeeze of lemon, warming woodsy notes and a sandstone-mineral crunch. There is a lot of length here, a lightly tactile palate and a balance of lengthy fresh acidity and savoury depth. This is a newer take on California Chardonnay that breaks the old stereotype for the style and instead delivers a more savoury focus with mouth-watering flavour.

Ripe pear and hints of peach open the nose followed by a squeeze of lemon. The palate shifts to baked orchard fruits sprinkled with warming spices. There is a lightly grippy mouthfeel of crushed sandstone that carries through a long finish. The mouth-watering quality balances the full flavour of the wine. The character feels classic to the region though entirely counter to the California stereotype. Savoury, fresh, mouth-watering with lots of length. There is a bit more mid-palate concentration here compared with Copain’s Skycrest Chardonnay.

A mix of tropical yellow fruits on the nose shifts to spiced pear and warm red apple on the palate. The fruits are mouth-watering and juicy though the wine overall is savoury with
warming spices. The flavours here offer riper fruits relative to the region, though nothing near tropical, but the lighter weight of the palate means the wine retains a mouthwatering
focus and a lot of length. This would do well with a meal of white fish and summer foods picked in season.

This last chardonnay brings together many of the flavors from the first two wines. Citrus-like flavors and aromas share the stage with hints of butter, sea salt, oak and lemon. And the other two wines, the flavors here are smooth and mellow. There’s nothing over the top. Instead, the wine communicates its depth and complexity in a whisper.

Penner-Ash is probably best known for its complex, powerful Pinot Noir wines. Its chardonnay’s just as impressive. Layers of flavors range from hints of oak and toasted butter to a dash of sea salt and grilled lemon. Everything about this wine is more subtle and intense. You can clearly taste the mist that often lingers in many vineyards in the Willamette Valley, giving this wine an air of mystery. An exciting, energetic wine with a distinct personality.

Gran Moraine winery’s located on the western edge of the Yamhill-Carlton subregion in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. You may remember reading a few years ago about this winery’s sparkling wine. This chardonnay’s equally memorable. Its flavors range from lemon and sea salt to hints of melted butter. Allow the chilled wine to slowly warm up in the glass and you’ll notice that the lemon, sea salt and butter flavors become brighter, livelier and even more refreshing. A superb wine from start to finish.

Made from pinot noir grapes grown in Monterey County, this expressive dry rosé offers berry and melon flavours with mouth-watering acidity that contributes to its refreshing character. Bright and juicy, this is an elegant pink wine that’s pleasurable on its own or accompanying a meal. Drink now.

Absolutely textbook. Salted pineapple, nutmeg, a tenuous tug of texture, some salted caramel and ripe pear. Enough oak for an oak lover to be satisfied, but well-integrated and not overt.

Warm spices and plenty of sweet strawberries with a squeeze of ripe orange, florals and mace. Barely-there tannins. Lifted, lilted acidity. Juicy charm. A wine for right now.

My guide to the bet Australian chardonnay
...while Giant Steps from the Yarra Valley, also wild fermented, spends even less time in oak; check out the juicy melon and pineapple fruit of the 2021 Giant Steps Chardonnay but with saline bite and grip too.

Father’s Day Gift Guide: Rosé Wines
If your papa loves a plate of charcuterie, then Kendall-Jackson 2021 Vintner’s Reserve Rosé would be a great wine to pair. With aromas of watermelon and apricot, this wine lends itself to cured meats, making it a Father’s Day match.

Eleven years on, the wine is still fresh with bright fruit and focused acidity. Complex layers of aroma and flavor have evolved, with loam and pencil shavings emerging under berry liqueur and dark chocolate. Ripe but elegantly firm tannins give structure to spicy black raspberry and cherry, and mountain intensity carries through a lingering finish.
That structure and intensity are honestly earned, from the historic vineyard’s location above the fog line on Howell Mountain (small berries, thicker skins), making this Merlot a delicious argument that not only can the wine be great, it can age with the best of them.

The 2021 vintage for south-eastern Australia has been the rose between two thorny vintages. The swell of excellent releases solidifies its greatness.
This chardonnay is a blend of their single sites; Sexton, Tarraford, Applejack, Primavera and Wombat Creek vineyards. Earthy aromas of moss and seashell sit alongside white florals and orange zest. It’s finely boned and holds a good line; with air it gains breadth. This is a very fine Aussie chardonnay, it’s complex and delicious with great staying power that speaks of classy fruit sourcing.
With a change of guard at Giant Steps and Mel Chester taking over, we look forward to seeing upcoming releases from this exemplary producer.

Recommended

Howell Mountain produces some of the most expressive Cabernet Sauvignon in the world, but occasionally bottles can take a little time to hit their stride, such as this wine. It opens with a drying nose that showcases blackberries and hints of oak, along with the savory aroma of peppered meat. This wine will benefit from a few years in bottle, but if decanted, it drinks well now.

From the slopes of Mount Veeder, this Cabernet Sauvignon is a powerhouse. It showcases the lively acidity often found in mountain fruit, and its fruit character leans heavily in deep, dark blackberries. A hearty protein will help soften its firm structure — as will some extra time in bottle if you can wait.

This mountain-fruit Cabernet lives up to Kendall-Jackson’s rich winemaking heritage. It shows expressive fruit depth, the tannins are present but not intrusive, and active acidity gives its weighty body verve. This is a great holiday wine.

The same vineyard as above, the Rosella’s Vineyard, yet a more delicate wine with pretty floral notes and tart cherry flavor and lots of lift to this wine and overall finesse with fine tannins and a stony finish. Both wines share a great purity to the fruit quality.

This is made with fruit from the Sexton Vineyard, at 200 meters in altitude (80 meters higher than Tarraford). Within the vineyard, the clones are dominated by Gingin (brought over to Victoria by Phil Sexton), followed by Dijon clones, planted in the 1990s. The 2021 Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay is composed of 60% Gingin. Twenty percent of the parcels went through malolactic fermentation—clone 277 and some of the 96. This is salty as anything—a very good thing in my book—and the sheer intensity of flavor in the mouth is mouthwatering. Preserved lemon and grapefruit pith lace the edges of the mid-palate. Very smart—it has the Yarra precision of acid and streamlined phenolics, but it brings concentration of flavor and thrilling phenolics. Super smart wine.

The 2021 Tarraford Vineyard Chardonnay comes from the Tarraford Vineyard—it is the most northerly vineyard in the collection and is planted to the P58 clone, planted in the 1980s. The fruit was originally intended as sparkling base and was being sold to Chandon. The fruit now goes solely toward table wine Chardonnay, and in this case, we are able to see for potential in the glass than merely sparkling base. This is a south-facing vineyard in a warmer area in the Yarra, which brings an attractive combination of streamlined linearity and a fine, mineral, nutty, briney character. In the mouth, the wine cascades across the palate, leaving a trail of white flowers, pink grapefruit and the faintest sense of caper brine through the finish. Very cool.

Down the hill by approximately 100 meters from the Wombat Creek Vineyard and planted on the same deep red basalt, the 2021 Primavera Vineyard Pinot Noir was made with 50% to 60% whole bunch and constructed from clones MV6 and 115. It is the leanest note of all of the wines in this collection, but my favorite wine: crunchy, strawberry, red apples, cranberry, redcurrant, red cherry...and abundance of red. The fruit is open and seductive, but it has a gentle herbal edge, like rose petals (specifically David Austin's Boscobel rose), musk sticks and Turkish delight. This is satisfying. Fleshy. Plump. Beautiful.

The Applejack Vineyard is planted across the hill, at the same altitude as the Primavera Vineyard on gray clay over mudstone, and picked within a few days of that site. The 2021 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir included 50% whole bunch in the mix and is a blend of seven different clones. This shows wonderful clarity and poise—it is precise and layered with energy and life. The acid pulses through the phenolic texture in the mouth. It was originally a sparkling vineyard, down the hill from Wombat Creek, situated in an eastern-facing bowl that captures the morning sunlight. Mel Chester (head of winemaking and viticulture) talks about the smell of the tea trees in the vineyard, explaining that "there's always a couple of Wedgetail eagles circling, it's a magic place." The evocative description of the vineyard carries through into the wine, which shows a satisfying, delicious resolution of plump ripe fruit and beautifully resolved tannin. Balance 101.

The Wombat Creek Vineyard is the most southerly in the collection and the highest altitude too, at 400 meters. It was planted in the 1980s as a source for cool-climate, Upper Yarra sparkling base. In the last 10 to 15 years, the site has emerged as one of the more exciting table wine sites in the area. Wild fermented and and made with 100% whole bunch, the 2021 Wombat Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir underwent carbonic maceration for a total of three weeks on skins. On the nose, there are notes of fennel flower, red apple skin, fig, lavender, quince and pork fat, shaped in the mouth by mineral/lead pencil/graphite tannins. This was bottled without fining or filtration. It is bright, sappy and crunchy, with a cavalcade of exotic spice complexity. It actually looked a lot better after an hour or so in the glass, suggesting that if you must drink it early, do the right thing and decant it.