Winemaker Notes
Aiming for elegance, restraint and the ability to age, acid is bright and there’s generosity of flavor. Typically it shows white flowers, citrus, and nectarine notes.
This wine is superb alongside grilled Pacific Sea Bass with a caper butter sauce.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The 2018 M3 chardonnay is a clever wine that will impress the most discerning chardonnay palates, as well as delivering endless drinking pleasure all round. Aromas of white peaches, grilled hazelnuts, lemons, praline and gun flint give way to a palate that has a big mouthful of peaches and citrus fruit. This is big on flavor and refreshment.
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.