Recognition

The 2022 Chardonnay Tiers Vineyard 1.5m is exactly what I expected it to be: excellent. A piercing intensity of flavor is matched by the piercing (and juicy) acidity. It fills the mouth side to side with sapid, staining fruit and …

From a small area planted 1979, then replanted with Dijon clones on a very close 1.5m spacing, the fruiting wire only 50cm above ground level. The yellow grapefruit is almost painfully intense and mouth-watering, the finish hypnotic.

Drink to 2042…

An incredibly intense chardonnay, mid-weighted and tightly furled. The edges are as chewy as they are sleek, with a parry of freshness melding with a thrust of oak, effortlessly subsumed by the sheer palate-staining extract. White peach, nectarine, peat and …

There is little difference quality-wise to the M3 & the Tiers 1.5m, and separating them was just hair-splitting. This is even more linear and coiled than the M3, and I suspect it will be longer lived. Doesn’t feel as open, …

This is a Chardonnay that is screaming for the cellar, and at least three or four years thanks to its current state which is wound up tight as a spring. It is bursting with embryonic aromas – grapefruit and tonic …

From the legendary Tiers Vineyard, planted alongside the Old Block vines, these are close-planted, as the title implies, and tend to ripen a little earlier. As much as I enjoyed the Piccadilly Chardonnay, for me this is a real step …

Bright light yellow with a discreet wheaty, Weetbix, faintly malty bouquet, with excellent concentration of fruit flavour that’s focused and tensioned, with a clean dry finish replete with refreshing acidity. The finish lingers long and the aftertaste is satisfying and …

Pale colour. Fresh lifted pear drop, white peach, lemon curd, grilled nut aromas. Well concentrated and mPale colour. Lifted grapefruit, nectarine, lemon curd aromas with tonic water, grilled almond notes. Well balanced and delicious drinking chardonnay with fresh sinuous grapefruit, …

I looked at this over the course of 48 hours, by accident rather than by design, and I much preferred it with a bit of air in it. It’s driven by limey acidity and while its quality is clear from …