Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
From its supple texture to its length of flavor, this takes chardonnay in the direction of chamomile and fresh lemon cream. Pale floral notes and a gentle, nutty finish quiet the wine’s power, rounding the firm acid structure in richness. Toasty graham cracker scents and generous spice notes make it substantial enough for blanquette de veau.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Lovely lemon curd, white peach and mandarin-peel notes open on the nose of the 2013 Tarraford Vineyard Chardonnay with nuances of flint, ginger and cedar. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate with lively citrus and stone fruit flavors supported by a crisp spine of acid before finishing long and minerally.
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Wine Enthusiast
This reasonably full-bodied Chardonnay manages to retain a sense of freshness and crispness throughout. Subtle oak and vanilla notes frame peach and pineapple fruit, while the finish is long and citrusy clean.
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.
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.