A lovely sense of smokiness precedes the hazelnut notions on the nose. A touch of ripe yellow plum adds an irresistible sense of juiciness. The palate then unites exquisite, soaring freshness with absolute linearity and concentration. A toasty sense of oak harmonises with yellow plum and lemon to give aromatic colour to this sleek, thoroughbred beauty.
94/100
This wine is a product of a very cool vintage in Wrattonbully, which in many ways suits the style of wines that Brian Croser is making. It’s a combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up more than half the blend, with contributions from Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Shiraz. It has a delicious aroma, displaying bright red fruits with deeper mulberry and some nice blackcurrant characters, and just a touch of glazed cherry. The structure retains a firmness, but the tannins are fine and chalky, and the flesh wraps neatly around it. Lovely, sweet fruit and a fine, fine-grained tannin finish. This is a super elegant wine, stylish and most polished.
95 Points
Dark ruby with a purple hue and a seductive nose of violets, potpourri, black plum, roasted fig, cherry, mixed red and black berries, tobacco, tapenade, roasted peppers, eucalyptus and sweet garrigue.
In the mouth it’s effortless, finely structured, impeccably balanced and elegant with purity and depth of fruit that’s been lovingly kissed by oak spice, charged with fresh acidity and textured with fine Cabernet(s) tannins that you see in Bordeaux within their perfect drinking window. This is exceptional! It meanders its way through to an endlessly long tail that’s mirrors what came before it, holding for minutes and leaves you smiling and sitting back in your chair with content.
⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ – A glorious Aussie “Bordeaux” blend from Wrattonbully
💎 – I think this is an absolute bargain!
🕰️ – Can age for as long as you want it to. A serious decant will do wonders if you want to drink now.
For those with long memories, the rise of the Wrattonbully wine region will come as a sweet postscript to one of the biggest legal battles over regional boundaries ever fought in this country concentrating on Coonawarra. At the centre of that battle was Brian Croser. It is poetic justice that saw him buy a vineyard on land that ceased to be Coonawarra as a result of the court case and became the Wrattonbully wine region. Together, Whalebone Vineyard and Wrattonbully show their star quality in a top, cool vintage like 2021. The four-way blend led by Cabernet Sauvignon (53.5%) with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz offers a smart, classic Cabernet-led style, one that is less about bells and whistles winemaking and just solid, well grown, old vine fruit and restrained winemaking. The scent is hedonistic with a fragrance rich in blackberry, jalapeño, dried herbs, cocoa, chocolate pan forte and pencil lead notes. There is a delicious juiciness to be enjoyed on the palate amid a generous meshing of earth, liquorice, black fruits, chocolate and woody spices delivered tight and firm in structure with fine Cabernet tannins in control and a bright acidity freshness. That touch of herbal lift to close is a lovely, memorable and fitting conclusion. Will age leisurely, beautifully.
The decision to re-release the 2015 red blend is deliberate. The year, a cool vintage, is intended as a comparison with the new release 2021 Whalebone Vineyard red blend, also from a cool year. The comparisons are there (minus, of course, the role of Cabernet Sauvignon in this instance), especially the juiciness of the fruit which is still very evident and quite fresh. This is a most re-assuring sign in a 10-year-old Aussie red. Take in the aromatics: violets, sage, anise, a whisper of bay leaf, earth and crushed herbs with black fruits plum and cherry. It’s an enticing start, one mixed with freshness and a slow developing complexity which still has a way to go on its journey. There is a sweetness of fruit on the palate, a pepperiness and strong herbal influence with an incense-like vanillin oak feature. Many will consider the mix of freshness with age a good reason to broach now. And why not?
The word exceptionalism was invented to describe the USA as an economic entity, or at least to describe the way it used to be.
Now the word has morphed to apply to the whim of the weather gods for the 2025 vintage in South Australia.
I have always advocated that every vintage is different and after 56 of them in South Australia and many elsewhere, never has that been more evident than in 2025.
2025 was the driest, warmest and earliest vintage of my 56-year career.
Tiers Vineyard was a mammoth 46.6% warmer than average for the growing season, Foggy Hill warmer by 27% and Whalebone by 21%.
It was also a record-breaking drought through the growing season, Tiers recording just 52% of average rain, Foggy Hill 45% and Whalebone better at 80%.
Improbably, we had harvested all three vineyards by March 20, beginning with Foggy Hill Pinot Noir on the 27th of February, followed by Tiers Chardonnay on the 7th of March and finishing with Whalebone Cabernet Sauvignon on the 20th of March. The 2025 harvest was 6 weeks earlier than the very cool vintage of 2023 and the earliest ever.
There must be one vintage of the 56 that answers at least one of these extremes. It seems improbable to me, that 2025 is the outlier for all three parameters, rainfall, temperature and time of harvest and for two of my distinguished site vineyards, The Tiers and Foggy Hill.
It is as though the weather gods are taunting me, saying “we can still surprise you”, even after I have probably completed 90% of the vintages in which I will have been granted the privilege of participating.
South Australia is getting drier and warmer like most of the world, but the weather patterns of the past couple of decades speak of something else at play.
I did write an article for Jancis Robinson, published on the 24th of February 2022,
midway through the 2022 growing season, titled “A Century of South Australian Climate Change”.
The article was based on the 100-year weather data at Parawa on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, the home of Foggy Hill, Tapanappa’s Pinot Noir vineyard.
Resolved into decades across the 100 years, it demonstrated there are extended alternating periods of exceptionally cool and hot vintages.
The cool decades were 1945 to 1954 and 1995 to 2004, each more than 7% below the average, while the 15-year hot period of 2005 to 2019 was 13% above the average.
In the 2022 article I speculated after the cool 2000 and 2021 vintages, “2022 is tracking markedly below the average. Just maybe we are entering another (cool) swing of the cycle as in 1995-2004. That’s my hope”.
Well, 2023 and 2024 turned out to be even cooler than the previous 3 vintages and the 5-year average 2020 to 2024 is 4.05% below the long-term average. That’s significant and heralded 5 very high-quality cool vintages from Foggy Hill and The Tiers.
My 2022 speculation was correct, we were in the middle of a sequence of cooler vintages.
Then along came 2025!
After the 5 successive cool vintages why were we suddenly in the warmest, driest and earliest vintage of my career in 2025? Does 2025 herald the beginning of another sequence of hot vintages?
As I have written elsewhere, the cool sequence was largely the result of a positive SAM (Southern Annular Modulation) indicating that the chain of high and low pressure systems arriving from the west were being sucked down into the Great Southern Ocean, closer to Antarctica, bringing cold air up onto Australia’s southern shore line.
The Antarctic Vortex, the huge column of spinning air above the South pole, reaching into the stratosphere, was very strong during this period, fuelled by stratospheric moisture from the massive undersea Tongan volcanic explosion in December 2021. The centripetal force of the strong Antarctic Vortex sucked the weather systems south, creating a positive SAM.
Now in the words of BOM (Australian Bureau of Meteorology),
“The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is in a negative phase. Recent forecasts show negative SAM is more likely to dominate for the remainder of summer, due to the polar vortex taking an unusually long time to recover from the stratospheric warming event in winter 2024. During summer, a negative SAM decreases rainfall over most of southeastern Australia.”
The weak Antarctic Vortex has let go of the pressure systems and they are now traversing the globe much closer to the Australian continent. This brings hot dry air off the continent to our coastal vineyard regions.
Will the Vortex strengthen again? Is the 2025 vintage a unicorn vintage in the middle of a cool vintage period?
These are speculative questions, but my bet is we will resume cooler vintages after 2025, for some time. The Tongan moisture is still up there in the stratosphere.
What then of the 2025 vintage? How has the quality been affected by the warmth, the drought and the earliness?
The first welcome effect was that we had crop, after the miserable yields of the cool era.
The bunches were plump, the berries good sized reflecting a warm dry flowering period at the end of November.
They ripened rapidly in ideal warm ripening temperatures and without heat waves.
It is too early to tell but I don’t expect the exquisitely delicate and intense flavours of the past five vintages.
I do expect the Chardonnay from The Tiers and the Pinot from Foggy Hill will be better expressions than from the other hot outlier vintages of 2016 and 2018.
In 2016 and 2018 both vineyards held their terroir form, and the wines produced are definitively representative of those unique terroirs.
I am cautiously optimistic about the quality of the unicorn 2025 vintage but to be a winemaker you must be optimistic.
Brian Croser
15/2/2025
Whalebone Vineyard was first planted in 1974 as the Koppamurra Vineyard.
1974 was the peak of the real-estate frenzy in Coonawarra as the large wine companies of the era (Mildara, Penfolds, Wynns, Lindemans) outbid one another for the scarce resource of red soil over limestone on the recognised Coonawarra cigar shaped ridge. They were envisaging the El Dorado of red wine, a region capable of producing world class red wine at high crop levels using irrigation and mechanisation to produce high priced wine at minimal cost.
A band of young professional friends from Adelaide wanted to join the party and produce their own world class red wine from Coonawarra.
It became obvious they could not obtain or afford land on the Coonawarra cigar, so they explored the Joanna region just north of Coonawarra where there was an abundance of red soil over limestone being used for grazing sheep and cattle.
What they didn’t realise was the geology of the Joanna region is the 34-million-year-old limestone of the Mount Gambier formation lifted to surface by the Kanawinka Fault. The red soil over limestone at Joanna is totally different in age and composition to the red soil over limestone at Coonawarra.
Coonawarra limestone is a mere 1 million years-old, a stranded old shoreline left high and dry by the cycles of ice-age freeze and thaw and the gradual uplift of the plain on which it sits, extending to the west and the Great Southern Ocean.
The Koppamurra Vineyard was developed in 1974 by the band of inspired amateurs planting the Bordeaux varieties so suited to the region’s climate, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. They didn’t prepare the ground for planting by ripping through the hard limestone cap under the red soil, forcing the vines to slowly explore the natural fissures and cracks, a process that constrained grape production and limited vine vigour. It took 6 years to grow a first commercial crop at Koppamurra Vineyard.
Enter Geoffrey Weaver, my school-day friend, a fellow Ag. Science graduate and aspiring winemaker. Unable to obtain Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra, Geoffrey purchased some of the first crop from Koppamurra Vineyard in 1980, a cool and excellent vintage.
Geoffrey commissioned the two-year-old Petaluma winery to make the wine as he instructed. Despite considerable logistical difficulties, the 1980 Cabernet Sauvignon from Koppamurra Vineyard was made and bottled under Geoffrey’s label. It was an outstanding wine that still in 2025 opens beautifully.
Meanwhile, I was busy making Cabernet Sauvignon from the 11 year-old Evans Vineyard on the northern end of the Coonawarra cigar, bottled as the excellent 1980 Petaluma Coonawarra that also still opens well in 2025. Back then, I realised the Koppamurra and Evans Vineyard 1980 wines were quite different, reflecting two similar but different terroirs. I mentally filed the potential of the Koppamurra Vineyard as a future acquisition if it ever became available.
In 2000 the final court determination of the prolonged Coonawarra boundary dispute, left Koppamurra vineyard in the new Wrattonbully wine region.
In 2002 Tapanappa purchased the Koppamurrra Vineyard from the band of founders and renamed it the Whalebone Vineyard.
In the process of redeveloping Koppamurra vineyard and planting a new vineyard for the Bizot/Bollinger family next door, we discovered an extensive cave system in the 34-million-year-old limestone under the vineyards with the skeleton of an ancient whale exposed in the wall of the cave. What else to rename the 28-year-old vineyard other than the Whalebone vineyard?
Tapanappa’s 23-year journey with the Whalebone vineyard began with renovating the trellis and irrigation and continues with the carefully nurturing of the old vines, encouraging them to produce the best expression of the unique Whalebone terroir.
Xavier Bizot, my son-in-law, has the responsibility of managing the venerable Whalebone Vineyard and maintaining the high quality of its crop despite the sclerotic effects of vine age and diminishing production. He is succeeding admirably.
From the first Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard in 2003, depending on the vintage, Tapanappa has produced a straight Merlot, a Cabernet Shiraz blend, a Merlot Cabernet Franc blend and in the recent small crop years, an all in Cabernet Merlot Cabernet Franc blend.
The latter, all varieties together, is destined to be the future for Whalebone as the crop levels diminish, small but precious. The about to be released 2021 Whalebone is an excellent cool vintage example of this blend.
My first comparison of the Coonawarra and Wrattonbully terroirs were the wines we made 45 years ago from the 1980 vintage. Geoffrey Weaver’s Wrattonbully wine had restrained opulence, a ripe Cabernet fruit without any hint of Cabernet’s briary, vegetal dimension. The 1980 Petaluma Coonawarra was a more austere Cabernet varietal expression with hints of thistle and capsicum, a more evident acid and a determined tannin structure.
Today, the 51-year-old Whalebone delivers the same rounded ripe and balanced Cabernet dominant wine. It produces a medium weight, translucent, genuine claret that ages for decades and retains freshness and a lively purple tint.
The uniqueness of Whalebone is evident compared to the fading fashion of colour and tannin dense very ripe wines that are ubiquitous in the market.
I am in awe of and honour Whalebone at 51 years of age. What a privilege it is to have made its wines since 2003.
Brian Croser
26/4/2025
Here we have the pinnacle Chardonnay release from the first vineyard planted in the Piccadilly Valley since the 19th century. Restrained power is the term that comes to mind here. It’s tight and focussed, yielding enough aromatic presence to get you excited, but for the future more than the present. Grapefruit, white nectarine and white peach sit above cashew, lemon juice, almond, taut green apple and floral bath salts that build with air. Some mandarin pith and flint notes follow, and there’s a mineral shot through the centre in an oyster shell form bringing a lovely twang of saline complexity. The fine cedar oak is taking a back seat here, supporting an otherwise fresh, bright and powerful wine. The palate is tight and chalky in a similarly intensely coiled and tensile feel with rapier acidity constricting the mouth around lemon juice, green apple, peach blossom, peach skin and mandarin skin. The finish is immensely architectural, with bitter grapefruit laced phenolics gripping at the sides along with that salivating acid line to a citrussy, chalky close. Wow, this one is for the long haul and the rewards of patience will undoubtedly excite. Drink 2030 – 2040
Named on account of the 1.5 metre spacing between vine rows. Fresh, tightly wound and elegant aromas of white peach and cedar kick things off, followed by green apple, Meyer lemon, peach blossom, nectarine pulp and cinnamon. There’s a taut and coy feel to the palate at this stage of its life, though with restrained power keen to unfurl in time. White peach, apple, Meyer lemon again, some delicate brown spice. The acidity is assertive and tight here, reflecting the cool vintage and working with chalky phenolics to create a coiled and taut frame through the finish. The bones are excellent, and this will shine following a decade in cellar.
High quality cedar oak sits confidently here, melding with fresh cut nectarine, quince, peach skin, kumquat and red apple with some savoury cashew cream beneath. There’s a lot of impact aromatically thanks to good concentration and balance. The palate is fresh and precise in its fruit profile which mirrors the nose, cascading through the mouth with intensity and drive. Fine cedar acts as a seasoning and clean, stone fruit laced acidity pulls it long through the mouth. This is fulsome and fresh, powerful but elegant. A strong release.
94 Points
The original Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay planted in 1979 in the Piccadilly Valley was the first Adelaide Hills vineyard to unknown clones. 2024, though slightly warmer, was yet another cooler vintage in the run since 2020. Modest cropping of 4 tonnes to the hectare. French oak barrique (1/3 new) fermentation before barrel ageing until November of 2024.
Pale lemon hue. Fragrant and redolent with the richness of a slightly warmer year. Creamed honey, vanilla bean, pome (apple and pear) flesh, grilled white nectarine, cashew cream and raw nut, grapefruit flesh and juice with just a little toasty oak. For the ‘warmer’ vintage and the ABV, the structure and drive show no sign. Everything in place: There’s flesh, there’s tension, there’s drive. Bittersweet fruit gives such an addictive tartness that there’s an instant desire to return to the glass. Take your time.
2024, though slightly warmer continued a run of cool vintages. French oak barriques (1/3 new) for fermentation (2 months through Autumn). Barrel aged on full lees until October 2024, before racking off and then a November bottling.
Pale lemon colour with green highlights. Class and nuance. White stone fruit, brioche, lemon/lime citrus, wet quartz stones, Pomme (apple to pear) flesh sprinkled with cinnamon spice, white choc dipped honeycomb, white florals, ozone and sea spray. Potency with precision. A distinct savoury undertone with grippy, drying phenolics and an undeniable intensity. It’s tense, tight and built for the ages.
The Piccadilly Valley is ‘entry’ level for this exquisite range of Chardonnay. 2024 another cool vintage like the 4 before it, but marginally warmer with a modest crop of 4 tonnes per hectare on the 30 year old vines.
Medium-light straw with green highlights. Layered and complex. White chocolate, green apple, white nectarine, just dried fig, smoked chicken breast, peanut oil, pineapple skin, grapefruit pith, hints of sourdough and refined toastiness. Flesh and intensity. Layered with class and precision. Juicy acidity the skeletal elements running through that slightly warmer vintage richness. Another classy release (and excellent value!)
94 Points
There are few more committed or driven people in the Australian wine industry than Brian Croser.
From the time he released the beautiful pristine rieslings under his Petaluma label back in the late seventies to his more recent focus on what he calls “Distinguished Sites” he has been focused on continuous improvement and refinement. You don’t get an AO if you do things in half measures.
And that more recent focus started in 2002 when he founded Tapanappa with vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, then Wrattonbully, well to the south near Coonawarra, and the Southern Fleurieu.
In each case he has chosen varieties that fit with site and region – chardonnay from the Tiers vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, predominantly Bordeaux varieties from the Whalebone Vineyard in Wrattonbully and pinot noir from the Foggy Hill vineyard in the Fleurieu.
For much of his 50-plus year involvement in Australian wine, Croser has been one of the most revered and respected winemakers, with an influence that has spread far beyond his own labels, largely as a result of his rigorous and demanding attention to detail in both the vineyard and the winery.
And these days, although Tapanappa is managed by husband and wife Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser, the son-in-law and daughter of Brian and Ann, Croser himself is still at the helm of winemaking and viticultural decision making. You wouldn’t expect anything less.
The focus in this week’s column is the chardonnays that come from Tapanappa in the Adelaide Hills. I have tasted these wines over many vintages and always they are wines that combine texture, delicacy and expressive fruit with a linear focus and palate length, capturing site and season. Sounds cliched, but that is would I get and why I look forward each year to seeing the latest iteration.
In fact, while site is the key driver, I have always been fascinated by the subtle differences from season to season, where viticulture and winemaking have been designed to capture and highlight the virtues and subtle differences of the years.
The chardonnay wines are from the 2024 vintage, a very good year, and slightly warmer than the 2023. In each case, the winemaking was pretty much the same with the Tiers vineyard chardonnay getting a couple of extra months in oak. So, the subtle differences are a result of clone and vineyard.
The Piccadilly Valley chardonnay is separate from the Tiers wines in that the fruit comes from three other vineyards in the Piccadilly Valley. However, the strength of this region for Australian chardonnay is clearly evident with the class of this wine.
The Tiers 1.5m wine was created in 2003 when a small section of the original vineyard was close planted with French Bernard Clones, resulting in slightly earlier ripening. It was decided in 2015 to create a separate wine from this vineyard rather than being blended into the Tiers chardonnay.
At the top of the tree is the Tiers Vineyard chardonnay a wine that captures power and layered complexity that is the essence of the site.
The wines have just been released and are well worth checking out.
Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley chardonnay 2024 ($60)
From a cool vintage, although not as cool as the ’23. This is a delightful chardonnay from the Piccadilly Valley with a vibrant freshness and energy which is complemented by the subtle stone fruit characters. Fine savoury notes with lemony chalky characters that balanced the beautifully pristine fruit. The finish is dry and slightly savoury. The flavour profile through the palate is long and sustained.
Score: 94/100 Cellar: 8 years
Tapanappa Tiers 1.5m chardonnay 2024 ($90)
The close spaces planting of this part of the Tiers vineyard imparts a slightly different flavour and textural feel to the chardonnays from the old Tiers plantings. Intense aromas of tropical fruits, brioche and spices. The palate is ripe and textured although the chalky acid and light citrus edge hold the definition and line through to the long finish. Supremely balanced with the oak and fruit integration seamless and refined. Excellent wine.
Score: 96/100 Cellar: 12 years
Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard chardonnay 2024 ($110)
This has to rank up there with the best of the Tiers Vineyard chardies yet released. It was an ever so slightly warmer vintage than the previous and this is reflected in the depth and fruit concentration expressed with relative opulence. Lots of nectarine, and cashew with a spicy pear edge to it. The fine chalky acid really holds the tension ensuring a defined and exceptionally long finish. A dry savoury and tight subtle astringency on the finish provides the final flourish to an outstanding wine.
Score: 97/100 Cellar: 12 years
Quite a bold and brassy chardonnay defined with spicy, cedary oak over peach and nectarine, red apple, grapefruit and banana notes, with touches of toffee apple in there, too. The richness feels apt and balanced, though one could suggest that this needs time to unfurl and soften with cellaring to see it more settled and reaching a further potential. For now, a big impact chardonnay, which many will line up for in its style.
93 Points
Fruit is picked from a close-planted block that was planted in ’03. This is wonderful chardonnay – all finesse, tension, filigreed minerality, light, savoury undertones and pristine, bright green pear, nectarine and pink grapefruit freshness. Touches of nougat, sea spray and green almond in the mesh of characters here. A suggestion of flint and wet slate lend credence and complexity, too. Very precise and energetic, and extends long in flavour and persistence of minerality. Class act.
96 Points
From the first Croser vineyard, planted ’79. A potent and rich chardonnay of distinguished power and presence. It’s set at a riper pace but feels supremely balanced and delivers emphatic notions of quality. Rich pear notes, dried and fresh, honeyed cashew, cinnamon toast, a touch of flinty minerality and red apple juiciness and a bit of crunch from that, too. Quite palate staining with its swish of sweet, liquified brown spice. A generous wine done with aplomb.
Pretty aromas of just-ripe white stone fruit, white flowers, grilled nuts, nougat, sweet spice, honey and green melon. The palate has lovely weight and texture, creamy, nutty and mouth-filling, with a core of nectarine, grapefruit and pithy, mineral acidty. Long, layered and sophisticated.
93 Points
Bright and vibrant in the glass. The aromas are lifted and layered, cashew nut, white stone fruit, nougat, melon skin and white flowers. Powerful and mouth-filling in flavour, but with fabulous balance and purity. There’s a seamlessness to the palate, the concentrated fruit and nutty oak working wonderfully together. Long and with real presence.
Complex and layered aromas of cashew nut, just-ripe white stone fruit, wheat puff, white flowers and grapefruit pith. Fine, focused and layered in flavour. There’s a drive of stone fruit, melon and a nutty creaminess. Pithy, crunchy acidity then kicks in and delivers shape, cut and drive. The finish is long and multi-dimensional. Very classy gear.
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