Recognition

I had to double-check the vintage on this wine but it’s definitely a 2023 in 2023. Not that there’s anything greatly unusual about that.

Pear, lemon, a little flint, and sprays of hay and sawdust. Pure of fruit and integrated …

From a small area planted 1979, then replanted with Dijon clones on a very close 1.5m spacing, the fruiting wire only 50cm above ground level. The yellow grapefruit is almost painfully intense and mouth-watering, the finish hypnotic.

Drink to 2042…

Scintillating chardonnay, so pure, fresh and intense, with crystalline focus and thrilling presence. Ravishing now, in its youth, but will mature beautifully over many years.…

This is like the regular Tapanappa Chardonnay but better, but more. Cinnamon scroll laced with creamy, lightly sour icing, melting white chocolate praline with a refreshing minty nuance. It has a solid base of peaches and apples. Satin-like confident cool …

A little struck match, grapefruit, lemon oil, apple and lime, cinnamon pasty dough, white chocolate and mint, so much presence and power, with bitter lemon and zinging acidity, and zesty tang. Biscuits too, on its lively and very long finish, …

Gunflint. Ka-pow! This is pushing with such amazing energy to start. Zesty grapefruit, lemon pith and nectarines, all sitting on the just-underripe edge, zingy and zippy. A hint of cinnamon-dusted green apple, fresh dough and lavender with pink grapefruit. It …

Matchstick, grapefruit and white nectarine, bit of cinnamon spice. Classic Hills Chardonnay with flinty texture, but also rich and cashew creamy, ribs of acidity, lively and zesty, a bit breathy with struck match at present, but pleasantly so for the …

Another “near perfect” vintage remarks Brian Croser in the notes accompanying the release. Slightly warmer than 2021, but like that vintage it’s considered spot on – compared to the run of warmer years in the decade from around the 2010s.

Exquisite …

An incredibly intense chardonnay, mid-weighted and tightly furled. The edges are as chewy as they are sleek, with a parry of freshness melding with a thrust of oak, effortlessly subsumed by the sheer palate-staining extract. White peach, nectarine, peat and …

While the 1.5m Chardonnay sibling is arguably more impressive on release, this is resinous and latent with multitudinous layers of flavour compressed by classy oak and juicy acidity. I like the way the fruit is subdued in a quasi-burgundian fashion, …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …