Author:
Source:
Date: Jun 2025
As always, the opportunity to source a wine already matured by the producers is an opportunity which should not be ignored. This is a blend of 69% Merlot and 31% Cabernet Franc, each variety made separately before the final step of blending. Maturation was in French oak barriques, half of which were new, for twenty months.
Author:
Source:
Date: Jun 2025
2021 was a cracking vintage in the Wrattonbully region – the home of this famous vineyard. The blend is 53.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc and 14.5% Shiraz. Each variety was treated discreetly, seeing eighteen months maturation in French oak barriques, half of which were new, before blending. Under cork, 2,000 cases were made.
Author:
Source:
Date: Jun 2025
This wine is a product of a very cool vintage in Wrattonbully, which in many ways suits the style of wines that Brian Croser is making. It’s a combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up more than half the blend, with contributions from Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Shiraz. It has a delicious aroma, displaying bright red fruits with deeper mulberry and some nice blackcurrant characters,
Author:
Source: Wine Worth Writing About
Date: May 2025
Dark ruby with a purple hue and a seductive nose of violets, potpourri, black plum, roasted fig, cherry, mixed red and black berries, tobacco, tapenade, roasted peppers, eucalyptus and sweet garrigue.
In the mouth it’s effortless, finely structured, impeccably balanced and elegant with purity and depth of fruit that’s been lovingly kissed by oak spice,
Author: Jeni Port
Source: Wine Pilot
Date: May 2025
For those with long memories, the rise of the Wrattonbully wine region will come as a sweet postscript to one of the biggest legal battles over regional boundaries ever fought in this country concentrating on Coonawarra. At the centre of that battle was Brian Croser. It is poetic justice that saw him buy a vineyard on land that ceased to be Coonawarra as a result of the court case and became the Wrattonbully wine region.
Author: Jeni Port
Source: Wine Pilot
Date: May 2025
The decision to re-release the 2015 red blend is deliberate. The year, a cool vintage, is intended as a comparison with the new release 2021 Whalebone Vineyard red blend, also from a cool year. The comparisons are there (minus, of course, the role of Cabernet Sauvignon in this instance), especially the juiciness of the fruit which is still very evident and quite fresh.
Author: Brian Croser
Source:
Date: May 2025
The word exceptionalism was invented to describe the USA as an economic entity, or at least to describe the way it used to be.
Now the word has morphed to apply to the whim of the weather gods for the 2025 vintage in South Australia.
I have always advocated that every vintage is different and after 56 of them in South Australia and many elsewhere,
Author:
Source:
Date: Apr 2025
Whalebone Vineyard was first planted in 1974 as the Koppamurra Vineyard.
1974 was the peak of the real-estate frenzy in Coonawarra as the large wine companies of the era (Mildara, Penfolds, Wynns, Lindemans) outbid one another for the scarce resource of red soil over limestone on the recognised Coonawarra cigar shaped ridge.
Author: Tom Kline
Source: Wine Pilot
Date: Apr 2025
Here we have the pinnacle Chardonnay release from the first vineyard planted in the Piccadilly Valley since the 19th century. Restrained power is the term that comes to mind here. It’s tight and focussed, yielding enough aromatic presence to get you excited, but for the future more than the present. Grapefruit, white nectarine and white peach sit above cashew,
Author: Tom Kline
Source: Wine Pilot
Date: Apr 2025
Named on account of the 1.5 metre spacing between vine rows. Fresh, tightly wound and elegant aromas of white peach and cedar kick things off, followed by green apple, Meyer lemon, peach blossom, nectarine pulp and cinnamon. There’s a taut and coy feel to the palate at this stage of its life, though with restrained power keen to unfurl in time.
Author: Tom Kline
Source: Wine Pilot
Date: Apr 2025
High quality cedar oak sits confidently here, melding with fresh cut nectarine, quince, peach skin, kumquat and red apple with some savoury cashew cream beneath. There’s a lot of impact aromatically thanks to good concentration and balance. The palate is fresh and precise in its fruit profile which mirrors the nose, cascading through the mouth with intensity and drive.
Author: Regan Drew
Source: Vino Notebook
Date: Apr 2025
The original Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay planted in 1979 in the Piccadilly Valley was the first Adelaide Hills vineyard to unknown clones. 2024, though slightly warmer, was yet another cooler vintage in the run since 2020. Modest cropping of 4 tonnes to the hectare. French oak barrique (1/3 new) fermentation before barrel ageing until November of 2024.
Author: Regan Drew
Source: Vino Notebook
Date: Apr 2025
2024, though slightly warmer continued a run of cool vintages. French oak barriques (1/3 new) for fermentation (2 months through Autumn). Barrel aged on full lees until October 2024, before racking off and then a November bottling.
Pale lemon colour with green highlights. Class and nuance. White stone fruit, brioche, lemon/lime citrus, wet quartz stones,
Author: Regan Drew
Source: Vino Notebook
Date: Apr 2025
The Piccadilly Valley is ‘entry’ level for this exquisite range of Chardonnay. 2024 another cool vintage like the 4 before it, but marginally warmer with a modest crop of 4 tonnes per hectare on the 30 year old vines.
Medium-light straw with green highlights. Layered and complex. White chocolate, green apple, white nectarine,
» Read more about: “Layered and complex.” – 94 points | Regan Drew | Vino Notebook »
Author: Ray Jordan
Source: Business News
Date: Apr 2025
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 »
Author: Mike Bennie
Source: Halliday Wine Companion
Date: Mar 2025
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.
Author: Mike Bennie
Source: Halliday Wine Companion
Date: Mar 2025
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 »
Author: Mike Bennie
Source: Halliday Wine Companion
Date: Mar 2025
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,
Author: Aaron Brasher
Source: The Real Review
Date: Mar 2025
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.
93 Points
» Read more about: “Long, layered and sophisticated.” 93 Points | Aaron Brasher | The Real Review »
Author: Aaron Brasher
Source: The Real Review
Date: Mar 2025
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 »
Author: Aaron Brasher
Source: The Real Review
Date: Mar 2025
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.
Author: Erin Larkin
Source: Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Date: Mar 2025
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.
Author: Erin Larkin
Source: Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Date: Mar 2025
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.
Author: Erin Larkin
Source: Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Date: Mar 2025
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,
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