The 2025 Chardonnay hails from Pat and Ted’s vineyard (Brian Croser’s parents), and interestingly, this vineyard houses the OF clone, the clone that Brian originally planted in the Tiers vineyard. Aromatically, the wine is fleshy and open, fresh and fulsome. The fruit is open-weave and bright, the acidity saline, and the overall impact is one of texture,
The fruit flavours feel ripe, there’s complexity aplenty, flint notes make the nose feel especially lively and the push of fruit through the finish has plenty of extras. This is an excellent chardonnay at the least; if not outstanding. It tastes of nectarine, grapefruit, sweet citrus, flint and nougat and from start to finish it really sings.
Quite the potency to this chardonnay, so too a distinct saline minerality. Scents and flavours of toffee apple, lemongrass, preserved lemon and green apple juice with dashes of sugared almond and flinty, stony notes. Lots going on here and, while concentrated and somewhat power-packed, this has a levity and finesse that helps the wine glide along confidently.
This is upper-class stuff. This has a silky, rich texture but sits at medium weight, a sheen of saline minerality, a light pucker of chalk and pumice stone, green apple, light brioche notes, faint candied citrus characters and a very lengthy trail of sweet spice and a dash of coconut bun happening, too. Through all of this,
Lifted and highly aromatic aromas of grapefruit pith, struck match, white flower, melon skin, grilled nuts, a whiff of nougat and just-ripe white stone fruit. Fabulously complex and evocative stuff. Fine, focused and layered, with a drive of pithy citrus, texured phenolics, stone fruit, some classy, integrated oak and real precision, line and length. Benchmark Aussie chardonnay.
Fabulously complex aromas of grapefruit pith, melon rind, just-ripe white stone fruit, cashew nut, nougat and white flowers. Fine, focused and tightly coiled, it has restrained concentration and power, but with precise oak, grip and acid cut. Length is impressive and it’s built for the long haul. 96 Points
“In 2003 the Croser family removed 1.3 hectares of the original Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay (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.
The original Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay planted in 1979 in the Piccadilly Valley as one of the first in the region. French oak barrique (1/3 new) fermentation before barrel ageing until November.
Pale lemon hue. Sharp and insistent. Cashew cream, nougat, nectarine, sage, lemon verbena, macadamia, gunflint, brioche and tea bun. Depth, tenacity, power and presence.
This was a product of a very hot, dry vintage, which tested all of Brian Croser’s immense experience. Yet the wine captures very much about what this particular vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley is all about. On the nose, there are notes of very subtle lemon curd and brioche with a spicy complexity. On the palate,
I have been an unabashed fan of this wine for many years, and even in what was a very hot, dry vintage, yet again, it’s come up trumps. As you can imagine, the warmer year has certainly produced slightly richer characters, immediately evident in the slightly darker colours and then manifested on the nose where richer stone fruit characters emerge.
Brian Croser has noted the 2025 vintage as the warmest, driest and earliest in his career, a career which stretches back for more than fifty years. However, any concerns that his iconic Chardonnays from the Tiers Vineyard would not reflect the typicity that they have come to enjoy over many years has been put to rest.
One Australia’s more famous Chardonnays and certainly one which influenced many wines which followed it. The vineyard was originally planted in 1979. Despite the unique conditions for this vintage, the yield was around average, at seven tonnes per hectare. Fermentation was in French oak barriques, with 1/3rd of them new, before spending time on lees until it was bottled.
Close planted Chardonnay – 1.5 metre row spacing – came in pretty handy during the 2025 vintage which was South Australia’s warmest, driest and earliest vintage on record. The winemaker believes close spacing provides “earlier-ripening, fuller flavoured Chardonnay,” something that translated into a firm, tight, tense package of wine in ’25 delivering a sunny, bright intensity of flavour.
Increasingly, I am allowing Aussie Chardonnays a little more time on opening, time to loosen up, to release some inbuilt tension and open to a full reveal. Top Aussie Chardonnays like Tiers call for it. Try and make it a rule and see if it works for you. With time opened, there is a growing warmth to the ’25 Tiers,
Grown on one of the best chardonnay vineyards in the Adelaide Hills and, by extension, therefore in Australia. This is a terrific Chardonnay. There’s plenty of razzle dazzle but then there’s also substance, texture and length. Flint, pear, tonic water, lemonade and pure, ripe peach characters come infused with cedar, woodsmoke and mineral. It’s a wine of power,
Great vineyards show their mettle in the most difficult of years. The Tiers Vineyard – one of the first planted in the Adelaide Hills – is in the coolest, wettest location in South Australia and is perfectly suited to chardonnay; with a micro-climate similar to that of Burgundy. It generally produces elegant, subtley shaded wines.
A lovely sense of smokiness precedes the hazelnut notions on the nose. A touch of ripe yellow plum adds an irresistible sense of juiciness. The palate then unites exquisite, soaring freshness with absolute linearity and concentration. A toasty sense of oak harmonises with yellow plum and lemon to give aromatic colour to this sleek, thoroughbred beauty.
No grape variety has played a more significant role in the development of modern Australian wine than Chardonnay. Ken Gargett traces the variety’s history in Australia, explores the region-by-region differences, and picks out some of the country’s finest Chardonnay producers and their wines. Read the full article here.
I love the notes Brian Croser shares about each vintage. He introduces 2025, “as a weak, wobbly Antarctic vortex allowed a pressure system to escape near the Australian continent. The result was the warmest, driest and earliest vintage of my 56-year winemaking career.”
These 44-year-old vines were hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and sent to French oak (one third new).
I do have a soft spot for this Chardonnay. It’s not in the same league as the Tiers 1.5m 2024, but it’s a very good one, no less.
I love the notes Brian Croser shares about each vintage. He introduces 2025, “as a weak, wobbly Antarctic vortex allowed a pressure system to escape near the Australian continent.
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