Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard 2024 Chardonnay

In 2003, the Croser family removed 1.3 hectares of the original Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay that was planted in 1979 in the Piccadilly Valley as the first Adelaide Hills vineyard. The area was replanted with the French Bernard clones 76 and 95 on rootstocks, on very close 1.5 metre row spacing with the fruiting wire at only 0.5 metres above the ground. This unique vineyard section produces earlier ripening, fuller flavoured Chardonnay than the 1981 old vine Chardonnay on its own roots, across the centre road in Tiers Vineyard.

So unique is this small area of Chardonnay that we made the decision to bottle it separately from the 2015 vintage onwards.

Like the 2021 and 2022 vintages before it, the 2024 vintage in the Piccadilly Valley was “near perfect”. Although not as cool as 2023, 2024 joins the queue of five successive cooler vintages since 2020 with a heat summation of 1194°C-days versus the average of 1108°C-days.

The crop was very modest in the Tiers 1.5M block at 6 tonnes/hectare. The Chardonnay grapes in the 21-year-old Tiers 1.5M Vineyard ripened in still and cool air, sunny conditions, ideal autumnal weather. Tiers 1.5M Vineyard yielded its exceptional quality fruit on the 15th of March, two weeks earlier than average.