Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5m 2023 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 it’s 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 2023 vintage in the Piccadilly Valley was “near perfect” and is the coolest of the three. The 2023 vintage was marginally cooler, with 1093C-days, than the long-term average of 1135C-days. We have now had four successive cooler vintages (2020 to 2023) after the near unrelenting warmth of the previous decade of vintages.

The Chardonnay crop was very modest in the Tiers 1.5M block at 6 tonnes/hectare. The Chardonnay grapes in the 20-year-old Tiers 1.5M Vineyard ripened in still and cool air, sunny conditions, ideal autumnal weather just before a rain event.

Tiers Vineyard 1.5M yielded up its exceptional quality fruit on the 12^th and 13^th of April, two weeks later than average, one of the latest ever.