Winemaker Notes
A fine boned Chardonnay that reflects the conditions of the vintage and the character of this unique vineyard site.
Pale lemon straw color. Restrained on the nose, with white flowers and a touch of struck match. A long, fine, and delicate palate but with underlying intensity of fruit, with chamomile, lemon pith and slightly under-ripe nectarine notes. Understated, with purity and finesse, but there is also texture and drive that hint at the great potential to age.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
Fermented wild in new and used 500L puncheons; matured for 10 months with the occasional stir. Among the country's varietal exemplars. Transparent and tensile with an additional nuance of flavour, vibrato and mineral cohesion etched into the firmament of complexity each year. White peach, toasted hazelnut, jasmine and nougatine teem long. The oak, nestled beautifully, serves as a framing backdrop rather than the centrepiece. A wine of precision, intense flavours and immense class.
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James Suckling
Fermented wild in new and used 500L puncheons; matured for 10 months with the occasional stir. Among the country's varietal exemplars. Transparent and tensile with an additional nuance of flavor, vibrato and mineral cohesion etched into the firmament of complexity each year. Aromas of white peaches, toasted hazelnuts, jasmine and nougatine run long. The oak, beautifully embedded, serves as a framing backdrop rather than the centrepiece. A wine of precision, intense flavor and considerable class.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay is creamy and restrained. It's a wholly classy affair layered with chalky phenolics, salted peach, lashings of white miso green apples, leafy things (bay and sage) and loads of salted crushed nuts. Elegant to the end, and totally streamlined, all elements are in harmony. It's composed of a combination of Bernard clones 95 and 76 and planted at the Lenswood site at an elevation of 500 meters. It's a good-looking site—lush, healthy, gorgeous.
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.
A narrow band of hills and valleys east of the city of Adelaide, the Adelaide Hills region is a diverse landscape featuring a variety of microclimates. In general it is moderate with high-altitude areas cooler and wetter compared to its warmer, lower areas.
Piccadilly Valley, the part of Adelaide Hills closest to the city, was first staked out by a grower named Brian Croser, in the 1970s for a cool spot to grow Chardonnay, then uncommon in Australia. Today a good amount of the Chardonnay goes to winemakers outside of the region.
Producers here experiment with other cool-climate loving aromatic varieties like Pinot Gris, Viognier and Riesling. Charming sparkling wine is also possible. On its north side, lower, west-facing slopes make full-bodied Shiraz.