Recognition

There are few more committed or driven people in the Australian wine industry than Brian Croser. 

From the time he released the beautiful pristine rieslings under his Petaluma label back in the late seventies to his more recent focus on what he calls “Distinguished Sites” he has been focused on continuous improvement and refinement.

 » Read more about: Distinguished sites serve up a treat – Ray Jordan | Business News  »

Quite a bold and brassy chardonnay defined with spicy, cedary oak over peach and nectarine, red apple, grapefruit and banana notes, with touches of toffee apple in there, too. The richness feels apt and balanced, though one could suggest that this needs time to unfurl and soften with cellaring to see it more settled and reaching a further potential.

 » Read more about: “Quite a bold and brassy chardonnay” 93 Points – Mike Bennie | Halliday Wine Companion – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Fruit is picked from a close-planted block that was planted in ’03. This is wonderful chardonnay – all finesse, tension, filigreed minerality, light, savoury undertones and pristine, bright green pear, nectarine and pink grapefruit freshness. Touches of nougat, sea spray and green almond in the mesh of characters here. A suggestion of flint and wet slate lend credence and complexity,

 » Read more about: “Very precise and energetic” 96 Points – Mike Bennie | Halliday Wine Companion – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

From the first Croser vineyard, planted ’79. A potent and rich chardonnay of distinguished power and presence. It’s set at a riper pace but feels supremely balanced and delivers emphatic notions of quality. Rich pear notes, dried and fresh, honeyed cashew, cinnamon toast, a touch of flinty minerality and red apple juiciness and a bit of crunch from that,

 » Read more about: “A generous wine done with aplomb.” 95 Points – Mike Bennie | Halliday Wine Companion – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Pretty aromas of just-ripe white stone fruit, white flowers, grilled nuts, nougat, sweet spice, honey and green melon. The palate has lovely weight and texture, creamy, nutty and mouth-filling, with a core of nectarine, grapefruit and pithy, mineral acidty. Long, layered and sophisticated.

 » Read more about: “Long, layered and sophisticated.” 93 Points – Aaron Brasher | The Real Review – Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »

Bright and vibrant in the glass. The aromas are lifted and layered, cashew nut, white stone fruit, nougat, melon skin and white flowers. Powerful and mouth-filling in flavour, but with fabulous balance and purity. There’s a seamlessness to the palate, the concentrated fruit and nutty oak working wonderfully together. Long and with real presence.

 » Read more about: “Long and with real presence.” 96 Points – Aaron Brasher | The Real Review – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Complex and layered aromas of cashew nut, just-ripe white stone fruit, wheat puff, white flowers and grapefruit pith. Fine, focused and layered in flavour. There’s a drive of stone fruit, melon and a nutty creaminess. Pithy, crunchy acidity then kicks in and delivers shape, cut and drive. The finish is long and multi-dimensional. Very classy gear.

 » Read more about: “Fine, focused and layered in flavour.” 96 Points – Aaron Brasher | The Real Review – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

The 2024 Chardonnay leads with pineapple husk and green bananas, nectarine, crushed cashews and a puff of custard powder. In the mouth, the wine is creamy and fruit sweet, with taut acidity that vibrates throughout. I think this wine will be immeasurably better in six months or more, as it is veritably leaping out of the glass in its current state of youth.

 » Read more about: “Veritably leaping out of the glass” 92 Points – Erin Larkin | Robert Parker Wine Advocate – Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »

The 2024 Chardonnay Tiers Vineyard 1.5m is floral and fine, creamy and detailed. The wine shows pressed white flowers, jasmine tea, something creamy like crushed hazelnuts and white chocolate, Golden Delicious apples and saffron. The Bernard clones 76 and 95 express with abundant citrus and yellow fruits, penetrating acidity and chalky phenolics. It’s a lovely wine.

 » Read more about: “Floral and fine, creamy and detailed.” 94 Points – Erin Larkin | Robert Parker Wine Advocate – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

The 2024 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay always ratchets up the fruit power and intensity from all other Chardonnays, both at Tapanappa and in the Adelaide Hills region at large. This usually gives us a thundering display of concentration and phenolic drive, and this 2024 iteration is no exception to that long-established rule. There are notes of crushed and salted nuts,

 » Read more about: “Thundering display of concentration and phenolic drive” 96 Points – Erin Larkin | Robert Parker Wine Advocate – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Another superb Tiers Chardonnay highlighting the beauty achieved with the grape in the Adelaide Hills. Adjectives get a real work out with this wine. Ripe fruit is noted and while the alcohol suggests it might be bigger – 14.1% abv – it isn’t noted on the taste. In fact, it is a refined expression, fresh in a burst of lemon and grapefruit citrus,

 » Read more about: “Well composed but compact” 96 Points – Jeni Port | Wine Pilot– Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

The use of 1.5m informs the drinker that a part of the vineyard has been close-planted – a 1.5 metre spacing between rows of vines – a fact that can excite some because of the suggestion of higher quality, amongst other more viticultural-related things. A tightly coiled, extra youthful Chardonnay expression emerges in ’24, a cool year,

 » Read more about: “A complex wine at the start of its life” 95 Points – Jeni Port | Wine Pilot– Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

A refined, concentrated Chardonnay from another cool year in the Adelaide Hills, one of five consecutive cool vintages in a row. A cool site in a cool year brings its own form of elegance, one that is both harmonious and restrained. There’s an edge of orange skin and cumquat on the aroma with citrus, nectarine,

 » Read more about: “A refined, concentrated Chardonnay” 94 Points – Jeni Port | Wine Pilot– Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »

Concentrated aromatic with white florals and citrus blossom, mangosteen, splice, fresh fig, pear, yellow and white peaches, sugar melon, banana ester, sweet pickled ginger, almonds, cashews, creme brûlée. Generous and open!
In the mouth it’s immediately delicious, generous and welcoming with ripe, juicy and rounded fruit and gently spicy notes that echo the nose.

 » Read more about: “Delicious, generous and welcoming” – Wine Worth Writing About – Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »

Tapanappa = great wine and from the fifth successive cool vintage, this Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay doesn’t disappoint.Fermented in French oak (33% new) and on full lees prior to bottling, the interest factor is plentiful.

It opens with custard powder, wafer biscuits, yellow grapefruit, white fleshed nectarines, grilled peaches, figs and old school lemonade before a lemony sherbet tang whips into gear.

 » Read more about: “A Chardonnay with plenty to absorb and admire” 94 Points – Q Wine Review– Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »

Wow! This is something. I know many prefer the Tiers Chardonnay, but for the last two years I have leaned towards this 1.5m and I don’t apologise for it. Elegance and purity seep through this wine’s veins and I want it all.

Brian Croser describes 2024 as a model vintage and this release is tight and laser-like focused on opening.

 » Read more about: “Elegance and purity seep through this wine’s veins” 97 Points – Q Wine Review– Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Concentrated and focused, let this Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay breathe for now or give it some bottle age and it will pay you back in spades. A few days of tasting proved that. An excellent wine as ever, but it’s tightly wound and I suspect it will be at its best around the five-year mark.

Brian Croser describes 2024 as a model vintage.

 » Read more about: “Concentrated and focused” 95 Points – Q Wine Review– Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

Focused, powerful and lifted aromas of citrus blossoms, jasmine tea, pome fruits, lime, grapefruit, nectarine, cashew, hazelnut, toasted oats, nougat, white pepper, ginger, sweet dusty spices and a touch of brine.
In the mouth it’s powerful, intense and has an immediate punch of flavour, acidity and tannin. Concentrated pome, apple warheads, peppery citrus, slightly bitter stonefruit,

 » Read more about: “Powerful, intense and has an immediate punch of flavour” – Wine Worth Writing About – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

A pretty, perfumed and finely detailed nose of sweet citrus and apple blossoms, apple gums, donut peach, honeydew, honeyed cashew, white pepper, dried galangal and gently woven spice.

In the mouth it’s tightly coiled, tense and shaped like a Barracuda; streamlined, slender, precisely proportioned and powerfully poised. A concentrated drive of pure fruit and subtle spice flavours echo the nose,

 » Read more about: “Wonderful waltz between standoff-ish intensity, and endearing elegance” – Wine Worth Writing About – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

From a close planted block established in 2003. Bernard clones 76 and 95. It’s distinctly different to the Tiers old vine Chardonnay as a result, and I tend to think it’s the clonal selection that’s the biggest point of difference. Anyway, look at how well this wine has done at TWF over the years – 

 » Read more about: “Juicy and flavoursome” 95 points – Gary Walsh | Wine Front – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

The vines used for Tiers were planted in 1981, which is pioneering territory for Adelaide Hills. The clone is unknown, though they think it’s related to the cuttings brought in by James Busby in 1832.

There’s a bit of ooomph and weight to this wine, though it’s still clearly ‘fine wine’. Pear, banana,

 » Read more about: “Clearly ‘fine wine’”94 points – Gary Walsh | Wine Front – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

This has to rank up there with the best of the Tiers Vineyard chardies yet released. It was an ever so slightly warmer vintage than the previous and this is reflected in the depth and fruit concentration expressed with relative opulence. Lots of nectarine, and cashew with a spicy pear edge to it. The fine chalky acid really holds the tension ensuring a defined and exceptionally long finish.

 » Read more about: “Rank up there with the best of the Tiers Vineyard chardies yet released”- 97 points | Ray Jordan | Wine Pilot – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

The close spaces planting of this part of the Tiers vineyard imparts a slightly different flavour and textural feel to the chardonnays from the old Tiers plantings. Intense aromas of tropical fruits, brioche and spices. The palate is ripe and textured although the chalky acid and light citrus edge hold the definition and line through to the long finish.

 » Read more about: “Supremely balanced”- 96 points | Ray Jordan | Wine Pilot – Tapanappa Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay 2024  »

From a cool vintage, although not as cool as the ’23. This is a delightful chardonnay from the Piccadilly Valley with a vibrant freshness and energy which is complemented by the subtle stone fruit characters. Fine savoury notes with lemony chalky characters that balanced the beautifully pristine fruit. The finish is dry and slightly savoury.

 » Read more about: “Long and sustained”- 94 points | Ray Jordan | Wine Pilot – Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2024  »