Hand-picked fruit, chilled in trays, whole-berry pressed, fermented in French oak barriques (one-third new). Matured in barrel on full lees. From a year of frost and fire comes, according to Brian Croser, a ‘miracle’. The 2020 offers a celebration not only of fruit but life, a beauty of a chardonnay fresh and immediate in appeal but oh so capable of a much longer time in bottle. Flashes of honeysuckle, citrus, nectarine, apple and a whisper of mango skin wrapped around brisk acidity. But there’s more to the palate: it’s creamy and leesy, textural and long, but not heavy in the least.
95 points
