From the legendary Tiers Vineyard, planted alongside the Old Block vines, these are close-planted, as the title implies, and tend to ripen a little earlier. As much as I enjoyed the Piccadilly Chardonnay, for me this is a real step up (making it cracking value in comparison). In 2003, Brian Croser and his team removed 1.3 hectares of the original Tiers vineyard, which was planted 1979, and replanted with the French Bernard clones 76 and 95, on their own rootstocks with spacing at 1.5 metres (and the fruiting wire at just 0.5 metres above ground). So far, the fruit tends to earlier ripening and fuller flavours and so, in 2015, they decided to bottle it discretely.
Pale lemon in colour, there is an early note of oak influence, but this is well on the way to full integration. Richer flavours here too; we have stonefruit, cashews, woodsmoke, melon and river stones with good early complexity. Even though we have riper and fuller flavours here, there is also an extra degree of refinement and subtlety. Very long with a gentle fade, this will provide pleasure for at least the next 6 to 10 years.
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95 points
