The inherent power and confidence of Tiers is intricately toned by the tension and grace of this cool season, defining a linear and taut style of tremendous endurance and promise. The richness of this place rumbles away in the background …
While the quality of Australian Chardonnay is improving exponentially, Brian Croser’s Tiers remains among the finest as it glides into its fifth decade. Consecutive, near perfect and slightly cooler vintages in the Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills have once …
From the Shining Rock vineyard, which has a history of turning out impressive and detailed Shiraz, this is a charming, mid-weight style with a pretty array of fruits, from fruit pastilles and dark cherry to gentle touches of spice and …
Subtle bouquet of white peach and lemon zest with tones of savoury and herbaceous notes. Creamy on the palate, with a very refreshing acidity.
GOLD, 96 points
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As ever with Tiers, this needs a few years to see its full potential (as this vertical showed). And this 2022 release feels achingly young. Too young for now. On the first pass against the rest of the wines in …
There is little difference quality-wise to the M3 & the Tiers 1.5m, and separating them was just hair-splitting. This is even more linear and coiled than the M3, and I suspect it will be longer lived. Doesn’t feel as open, …
Intense and singular lemon juice aroma, traces of tropical flowers, all delicate and restrained, a tickle of sweetness before a cleansing firmness helps dry the finish. A punchy style with a little hardness but good intensity, and food would make …
52/24/24% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc, each fermented separately. Matured for 20 months in new French barriques before blending; 420 dozen made. Poor flowering and fruit set in 2020 resulted in a Whalebone Vineyard crop of just 1t/ha. It was decided to …
An intensely flavoured and tensile Riesling, fidelitous to region and hand. The quotient of lime, orange blossom, ginger crystal and spiced Granny Smith apple portioned nicely in the name of poise, approachability and yet, real potential for the cellar. I …
Dijon clones; aged in French barriques (30% new). A pretty pinot with a cherry and plum duo that provide the heart of both bouquet and palate. It’s a base for the spices and rose petals that will appear over the …
Sourced from a troika of cool-climate sites, this is a delicious chardonnay: mid-weighted and tense with glazed quince, tangerine and stone fruit allusions curled across some honeycomb oak (33% new) and a chord of acid vibrato. Almond meal and toasted …
Ultimately, this Tapanappa Whalebone Merlot Cabernet Franc 2018 is too firm and ripe to be great. But maybe, just maybe, it’s too young by half and I’m going to look like an idiot when it’s a blinder next decade. Try …
Medium deep crimson. Chinotto, plum vanilla, roasted chestnut aromas with herb garden notes. Evolved dark plum, mulberry flavours, fine loose knit grainy, hint leafy tannins well-balanced mocha roasted chestnut marzipan oak notes and well balanced fresh acidity. Finishes claret firm …
Medium deep crimson. Lovely intense blackcurrant, blackberry, hint chinotto aromas with vanilla, marzipan, roasted chestnut notes. Grainy textured and velvety with lovely inky blackcurrant, mulberry fruits, cedary textures and underlying vanilla/ marzipan notes. Finishes slinky firm and minerally. Very good …
From Brian Croser’s pioneer Piccadilly Valley vineyard, this is an all-enveloping Chardonnay experience, captivatingly ripe in its aromatic and flavour profile, white peach/nectarine with grapefruit inserts, a sense of creaminess, vanilla shortbreads and a faint spicy oak backdrop, which comes …
From Brian Croser’s Parawa vineyard at the southern corner of the Fleurieu Peninsula, air and sea-conditioned by the energized Southern Ocean and especially so during the cooler than average 2020 growing season, which has brought to this wine a delightfully …
Pale colour. Fresh lifted pear drop, white peach, lemon curd, grilled nut aromas. Well concentrated and Pale colour. Very attractive grapefruit lemon curd, tonic water aromas with marzipan, vanilla notes. Classical, beautifully balanced and multi-layered wine with grapefruit, lemon curd,
This is a Chardonnay that is screaming for the cellar, and at least three or four years thanks to its current state which is wound up tight as a spring. It is bursting with embryonic aromas – grapefruit and tonic …
This is an immaculate Chardonnay and one of best Tiers vintages yet with every element in its perfect place. It opens with beautifully precise and detailed aromas of grapefruit, honeydew melon and chalky minerality topped by fine new oak all …
Too much. That’s the challenge with both the latest Tapanappa Whalebone reds. This is a bit easier than the Merlot Cab, but still heavy-going, despite the obvious quality.From a warm, dry Wrattonbully vintage (Heat summation of 1799 degree days vs …
Deep, dark and inky in the glass. Lifted aromas of mulberry, blackcurrant, bramble, tobacco, menthol and oak. Rich, dark fruit and oaky on the palate, there’s a lush core of brooding mulberry fruit, plum, cola and firm granular tannins. Powerful, …
Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2022, $110. It is almost impossible to get the double consonants correct with this wine, but that is irrelevant, it is such a delicious chardonnay it is almost sacrilege to put it in the
Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay, 2022, $49. This is one of the cheapest in a range of what is likely Australia’s finest chardonnay stable, and if you’re looking for somewhere to start you’re rewarded with something not that far from the …
One of Australia’s most famous Chardonnays, though I fear it got a bit lost for some with the division of Petaluma and the emergence of Tapanappa. For me, this latest Tiers from the Tapanappa team must surely sit with the
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 …
This, the third tier if you’ll excuse the pun, of the Tapanappa Chardies, is sourced from the Piccadilly Valley, more specifically an equal divide between the Mount Bonython and Pat and Ted’s vineyards. 2022 was another cooler vintage. The fruit …
Bright light yellow with a discreet wheaty, Weetbix, faintly malty bouquet, with excellent concentration of fruit flavour that’s focused and tensioned, with a clean dry finish replete with refreshing acidity. The finish lingers long and the aftertaste is satisfying and …
Light, bright yellow hue with a creamy, nutty, cashew and creamy lees bouquet, a hint of Weetbix, straightforward and youthful, the palate intense and long, refined and subtle. Very attractive wine and the price is right.
92 points …
Very light yellow hue, a restrained style of chardonnay with a fresh, fruit-driven bouquet of lemon, nut and nougat aromas, while the palate is intense and piercing, deep, concentrated and powerful, with biscuity overtones and brightly refreshing and quite penetrating …
Pale colour. Very attractive grapefruit lemon curd, tonic water aromas with marzipan, vanilla notes. Classical, beautifully balanced and multi-layered wine with grapefruit, lemon curd, tonic water flavours, grilled nut, marzipan notes, chalky hint grippy textures and pure crisp acidity. Very …
Pale colour. Fresh lifted pear drop, white peach, lemon curd, grilled nut aromas. Well concentrated and mPale colour. Lifted grapefruit, nectarine, lemon curd aromas with tonic water, grilled almond notes. Well balanced and delicious drinking chardonnay with fresh sinuous grapefruit, …
Pale colour. Fresh lifted pear drop, white peach, lemon curd, grilled nut aromas. Well concentrated and minerally wine with ample stone fruit, tonic water, grilled nut flavours, fine chalky, touch al dente textures, very good mid -palate volume/ viscosity and …
Here’s a mature wine – ready to enjoy right now – that is also a current release from Brian Croser’s excellent Tapanappa stable of wines. Fresh and juicy, but also stylish and sophisticated, it is a blend of Australia’s two …
I looked at this over the course of 48 hours, by accident rather than by design, and I much preferred it with a bit of air in it. It’s driven by limey acidity and while its quality is clear from …
| Wrattonbully, in South Australia’s Limestone Coast region, is home to two powerhouse wine families from opposite sides of the world now entwined by marriage. Sarah Ahmed chats with Australian wine legend Brian Croser and his son-in-law Xavier Bizot of the |
Sweet plum and strawberry aromas with dried citrus-peel undertones. Medium body with firm tannins and a linear and crisp finish. Lots of lemon-rind undertones. A little lean at the end. Drink now.
93 points
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A juicy red with dried flowers, ripe strawberries and cedar. Some leather and tobacco, too. It’s medium-bodied with fine tannins and a tangy and fresh finish. Drink now or hold.
93 points
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Aromas of red and black currants, black cherries, rosemary stem and thyme. Medium- to full-bodied with silky, chewy tannins. Nicely defined red and black fruit on the palate. Fresh and articulate with a juicy finish. Drink or hold.
93 points…
Bright and youthful in the glass. Complex aromas of cedar, tobacco, blackcurrant, dark cherry, bramble aA whale-sized price-tag, but given energy inflation, in time it will be less than a KW of electricity. At any time it is positively lovely …
Medium crimson. Red cherry pastille, hint bush garrigue with touches of vanilla. Round and supple with red cherry, red liquorice flavours, fine chalky / lacy textures and attractive mineral length. Minerally, structured and needs some time to develop. Drink now …
Pale colour. Intense vanilla, marzipan, lime cordial aromas with tonic water notes. Richly flavoured lime cordial, vanilla, grapefruit flavours, fine lacy/chalky textures and long fresh acidity. Lovely precision and mineral length. Drink now – 2034
96 points …
Pale colour. Lovely, developed honey, grapefruit, lime aromas with hints of SO2. Restrained, almost backward wine with grapefruit, lime, apple fruits, fine al dente chewy textures, some underlying nutty oak. Finishes minerally and long. Very tight. Drink 2024 – 2034 …
From Brian Croser’s prized Piccadilly Valley vineyard, there’s a lot going on here in terms of white stone fruit, chalky palate feels, and subtle spice notes. All class, and maybe hard to track down – must be something about Hills …
| What these wines unequivocally showed is that the Croser vision for grand Australian wines has come to reality. |
The sharp-minded, deliberate and controversial Brian Croser has been a forceful and polarising advocate of Australia’s fine wine …
We are very excited to announce the Tiers Vineyard 2021 Chardonnay was listed in the Drinks Business TOP 20 Chardonnays of 2022 after winning GOLD MEDAL at the 2022 Drinks Business Global Chardonnay Masters in December!
Already a benchmark producer …
James Halliday’s Top 100 wines for 2022 have been revealed!
We are thrilled to announce our 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard DEFINITUS Pinot Noir has made the prestigious list.
2019 Foggy Hill DEFINITUS Pinot Noir
Bramble, briar and black tea …
Bright and youthful in the glass. Complex aromas of cedar, tobacco, blackcurrant, dark cherry, bramble and spice. Lovely, pure and precise on the palate, mid to full-bodied, long, layered and complex. Plenty of red and dark fruits, textured tannins, cedar …
The Tapanappa 2021 Chardonnay is layered with concentrated Chardonnay flavor: curry leaf, yellow peach, salted preserved lemons and pink grapefruit, even. The phenolics in the mouth are grippy and attractive, and the wine fairly streams over the tongue and spools …
This 2021 Chardonnay Tiers Vineyard 1.5m is really delicious. The phenolics that curve in on every angle of the mouth are grippy and chalky and get a firm grasp onto the preserved lemon and salted peach flavors that blossom in …
This 2021 Chardonnay Tiers Vineyard is a sensational wine. Let me tell you about the vineyard, and then we’ll come back to the glass. The Tiers vineyard was planted in the Picadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills by the Croser …
Brian Croser is a chardonnay maestro. The wine was aged in one-third new oak with seven months on yeast lees. Intensity is the key, with peach and honeydew melon flavours, a lush texture and an impressive finish.
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| (1330 HDD vs 1331 HDD). More HDD measurements! Every vineyard! GIVE US THE STATS. Seriously, |
93 Points…
| The 2019 vintage of Definitus is a highly seductive release bursting with fruit flavour, particularly in the dark fruit spectrum. There is a delicious and powerful blend of dark cherry and fruits of the forest that offer quite a forceful |
Deep coloured, this is a decadent yet complex Merlot blend with lashings of rich blackberry, chocolate, cedar, black olive and earthy aromas wrapped up in a blanket of high quality French oak. It’s bold too, with impressive impact of sweet …
This a spectacular Aussie claret style; poised, focused and built for the long haul with its powerful blackberry, chocolate, blackcurrant, gravel aromas that are muscular and dense. Fantastic volume of fruit follows but all kept in check by layers of …
65/35% merlot/cabernet franc. Matured 18 months in French oak barriques (50% new). A warm year and a generous expression of fruit which sets the scene for some enjoyable drinking. Redcurrant, black cherry, fennel seed, red licorice, raspberry and pepper work …
86/14% cabernet sauvignon/shiraz. Matured 18 months in French oak barriques (50% new). The 2018 vintage was the second warmest on record after 2016. A ripe year has undoubtedly imparted more warmth and roundness to this wine, but it remains resolutely …
| There’s a lot of spice here, and autumnal effects, and general savouriness/earthiness in there with the fruit. I thought at first that it was peddling a bit too hard, but strangely enough the wine seemed to tighten and become more |
Barrel fermented in French oak (33% new), left on lees until bottled in January 2022. A chardonnay masterclass from a master that brings complexity and concentration with an utterly irresistible liveliness. Beautifully worked flinty aromas, grapefruit, lime zest, stone fruits …
The use of 1.5m in the wine’s title refers to its French-inspired close-planted 1.5m row spacing in the vineyard. The wine is regularly defined by its racy acidity, making it a different personality to its Tiers sibling. If you love …
A quality chardonnay maker and a quality vintage adds up to something quite exciting. Pristine with layers of citrus, honeydew melon, stone fruit and plenty of tangy, fresh acidity to give it zing, this is definitely on the riper end …
Exotic, dense, sapid smelling. Iced white peach kernel. There’s a just-milled Egyptian Gold flour fruitiness about it. So, so dense. Plenty of fruit concentration evident on the palate too, although the flavours themselves are reserved and primal — like the …
| It’s been another rough week here at Graham HQ, which means another noticeable lack of bottles opened. The wine sample department doth spilleth over, now extending from cupboard to a stack of boxes in the kitchen. Anyway, this is the |
| Bright, light-medium ruby-purple colour, the aromas fragrant and raspberry, strawberry tinged, while the wine is light bodied and softly textured, the tannins positive, powdery and cleansing the finish. Good fruit purity and it has backbone. It should mature in a |
| Medium depth of colour, still bright and fresh with a tinge of purple at the rim. The bouquet is spicy, whole-bunchy and quite complex, forest-floor and root-vegetable nuances chiming in with the red fruits and finished with a twist of |
| There’s a lot of spice here, and autumnal effects, and general savouriness/earthiness in there with the fruit. I thought at first that it was peddling a bit too hard, but strangely enough the wine seemed to tighten and become more |
| This bottle is screwcap sealed. Aside that, it’s pretty clear that Tapanappa have done very well out of the 2021 vintage, as have many others. Red fruits, spiced strawberry mainly, kind of autumnal, a little mint. It’s light to medium-bodied, |
Top tier. Top Tiers.
This Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay 2021 is just a super Chardonnay. Something that does justice to the Tiers name, from a great (cool vintage), and in classical form. It’s a winning wine, that has but one flaw …
| This is quite possibly the most flagrantly fragrant red wine in Australia, you can smell it all night, or, at only 12.5 percent drink it too and still drive home. |
9.4/10…
| You don’t often see the winemaker mentioned on the front label, but with Brian in charge, why wouldn’t you? It’s astonishing two wines from the same vineyard could be so different, yet still so lovely. This is superior, bountiful pinot |
This comes from a vintage in the Piccadilly Valley that Tapanappa winemaker Brian Croser describes as “near-perfect”. It’s a supreme ambassador of the variety and region, wafting at first with freshly cut grapefruit, a little orchard blossom then flowing straight into …
Palish garnet with a hint of brick.
Correct. Mid intensity. Developing. Red fruit, oak, herbal and spicy.
Dry, mid-low acidity, mid bodied, warm alcohol. Decent grainy tannins. Fruits follows through from the nose. Mid length.
Silver…
Subtle woodsmoke, Mirabelle jelly, wet loam and ripe lemon on the nose make for a dramatic and complex opening. The palate is immediately concentrated, a perfect calibration of creaminess and citric verve, all delivered with a super-fluid, smooth mouthfeel and …
Vignerons the world over, live with the caprice of nature, the weather God in particular.
The optimal result of a bountiful crop of outstanding quality grapes is a small sliver on the roulette wheel of weather dictated outcomes through a …
You remember when I pumped up the little brother wine to this new Tapanappa Tiers 1.5m Chardonnay 2021? This is a significant step up. Different though.
Drawn from the close-planted block across the path from the original Tiers 1979 plantings …
Medium to deep ruby colour with purple tinges. The bouquet is oaky and pungent, with some camphor and mint-eucalypt forest overtones, the palate a bit rasping and astringent when first poured, with the flavours turning to polished leather, red fruits …
A rarity, I guess. There is just this single release from Tapanappa’s Whalebone Vineyard in 2020 as there was just 8 tonnes of grapes harvested due to crap flowering. Who’d want to be a grapegrower, eh? It’s a whole vineyard …
Deep crimson in colour followed by a compact and concentrated unashamedly claret stye with structure, fruit focus and longevity keys to its success. Robust blackberry, blackcurrant fruits to start well supported by spicy oak, then building with mulberry and graphite …
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