Recognition

Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Tiers Vineyard (Alt. 450m) Chardonnay 2023, $110. About as much going on as a chardonnay can provide and all of it good. Somewhat lighter than exxy chardonnays are renowned, and better for it. Alas, few will discover …

What a super wine this is. As we all know, good Chardonnay often comes at a price, given the necessary inputs required to come together. From quality oak, lower-yielding vines and often time spent maturing prior to release, it’s easy …

The 2023 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay has elderflower and white peach, pressed flowers and kiwi fruit, custard apples and scraped vanilla pod. The wine is delicate but also powerful and finishes in a spooling flourish of flavor and salty acidity. A …

Hay colour. Light ginger biscuit feels amid crunchy early season white nectarine, spilling into a fresh palate, lime-like citrus juices, with a tangy edge to season the ripe fruit flavours and delicate savoury finishing notes. Neatly crafted styling.

12.5% alc …

From the Hills pioneer Chardonnay vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley, immediately a class above, lovely ripe white stone fruit aromas, subtle creaminess and flaked white nuts, everything deliciously balanced and edged with underlying citrussy acidity, chardonnay fruit magic vital to …

A flashy and deeply brooding chardonnay with aromas of nectarines, peaches, Meyer lemons and gun smoke. The palate is medium-bodied with vivid acidity and a generous mouthfeel, giving notes of grapefruit pith, orange blossoms and chalk. Very complex with underlying …

Fresh aromas of minerals, lemon peel, gun smoke and grapefruit. The palate is medium-bodied with focused acidity and a textural mouthfeel, giving notes of lime curd, orange blossoms, shortbread, flint and baking spices. Wonderfully balanced, with both power and vivid …

Appealing and complex nose of lemon, honey, melon and a touch of spiced peach with some hints of gunflint and oak spice. On the palate it has a lovely balance of freshness and focused fruit, with a refined and quite …

Hailing from Adelaide Hills’ oldest block of Chardonnay – which was planted in 1979 – is this outstanding white from the brilliant winemaker that is Brian Croser. Although rich in flavours, it’s light in texture, with a clean, citrusy sensation, …

Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Fleurieu Peninsula Pinot Noir 2023 scores 95 points from Mike Bennie. “A fine-boned, texturally-structured and firm Pinot 

Noir of dark cherry, raspberry and earthy undertones dashed with saltbush and spice. The grippy, minerally texture and fine …

It feels Grinchish, but I’d rather drink the 1.5m Chardonnay now. That’s because, as this vertical showed, Tiers needs a good five years to show its best, not one. Especially from a vintage that was cool (1093C vs the …

The close-planted 1.5m block on the Tiers vineyard is now twenty years old and is clearly hitting its straps. In the early days, an element was missing in the spotty-labelled 1.5m Chardonnay wines that reminds us what vine age does …

There is a big jump in RRP for this entree to the Tapanappa Chardonnay range, but when crops are low and demand is high, it makes a lot of sense. This Piccadilly Chardonnay comes from ‘Pat and Ted’s Vineyard on …

Pale crimson in the glass, the swill itself deft, dignified. This poise, together with tight bright fruit, leads the trajectory for this remarkable wine from the cool and late ripening ’23 vintage. The wine is well-lit and the bouquet carries …

At the highest point of the Fleurieu Peninsula, half-way between Victor Harbour and Cape Jervis, lies the Foggy Hill Vineyard. Its Pinot Noir is quite exceptional from year to year. Even in very cool years like 2023, the vineyard produces …

2023 was a cooler vintage than some on the Fleurieu Peninsula, indeed the coolest of four such years for the Foggy Hill vineyard. The cooler year led the team to forego any whole bunches in the ferment. The wine spent …

This was an exceptionally cool vintage. Despite that, the colour is light but with a glowing intensity and vibrancy. The nose reveals that distinctive spicy character with savoury and slightly limestone-like characters. The palate is still tightly coiled with fine …

One whiff and this Tapanappa Foggy Hill showcases its pinosity. From a cooler, low cropping year, give it some time to show its best.

Let it breathe to witness red berries, briar, black tea, tilled earth, compost and cola gradually …

The fourth consecutive cool vintage, and the coolest of the last four too. I have a weather station in my back yard, and I like to look at the data, and in this way, I feel a sort of kinship …

Lovely figgy note gently wafting from the glass here. Add to that ripe stonefruit, pear – it’s like a summer salad in a glass. 
Bracing acidity running the full length of the wine. Citrus, stonefruit – a herbal/ floral note …

Melon, a harder edge of Stonefruit kernel, fig and spice. 

Initial entry is gentle and textural, leading to an expansive mid-palate through the finish. Burst of energetic tangy-lime acidity closes the wine out. 

It’s cool year credentials and moderate 12.5% …

From a close-planted, lower-to-ground trellised plot in the Tiers Vineyard, Piccadilly, Adelaide Hills. An intense wine, concentrated and surprisingly rich given the season. Scents of salted cashew, ripe apple, ginger, clove, fennel and green mango, the palate an echo of …

This pure-fruited wine needs time to show its best. It tastes of pear, flint, peach and riverstones, with hay, lemon and cedarwood about the edges. It shows both power and control, but for the moment, it seems backward and a …

From the Tiers Vineyard planted in 1979. A third of the barrels used are new French oak. The cooler year renders a wine of tension and torsion, precision and finesse. It’s heavily perfumed, an invitation to drink lustily, with green …