Winemaker Notes
Following the marvelous 2015, 'Kostas' is quite a challenge for the 2016 vintage, though it has happily risen to the task. As always, there is a lot of fragrance of lemon and pithy grapefruit lifted by white flowers and orange blossom. One year on all solids and lees has added a mealy complexity and a gentle savory restraint. The palate is mouth filling, intense in acidity, creamy, flowing, relatively rich and very long. There is a certain chalkiness and tension in the wine that weaves its way through the back palate and sits inside the harmonious finish. Another three years will be of great benefit in delivering added complexity and texture.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Cooked apple and pear aromas and flavors. Medium body, crisp and clean with a fruity finish. Lemon rind and curd character.
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Wine Spectator
Elegant and bold, with dried mango, peach and lemon curd flavors and a supple, luxurious body. Finds the right balance between fruit purity, spicy accents, a rich body and crisp acidity. Drink now through 2023.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Nestled into the tip of its southeastern coastline, Victoria is Australia’s smallest mainland state, second most populous and third largest wine producer. Victoria includes the cool regions of Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, made famous mainly by impressive Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The more inland Heathcote and Bendigo lead the way for complex and textured, full-bodied reds. Rutherglen’s fortified wines compete among the best on the planet.