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. The 2021 vintage was one of the best on record. Ripe and healthy fruit resulted in a beautifully balanced M3, with great flavors, and fresh acidity right through to the long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A tremendous vintage, the equal of any past wine and perhaps even finer than some of the quieter wines for which I held a candle. It is edgy, lime pith-imbued, generous as it billows on the palate, and enticingly oaked. Impressively light to the touch, but a firm and controlled spine brings rigidity and discipline, allowing the more transient and less serious flesh notes to fly.
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James Suckling
This is such a beautifully crafted Adelaide Hills chardonnay! Complex, flinty nose with notes of toasted baguette, lime zest, Asian pear and fresh pineapple. I love the underplayed power on the very focused, medium-bodied palate. Fine tannins underline the long and intense wet-stone finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Like Shaw and Smith’s Tasmanian label, Tolpuddle, this is a Burgundy-influenced Chard with distinct seashell, struck match, grilled melon and preserved lemon characteristics. The midweight palate is slippery and toasty, with a beautiful line of acidity and a long finish. Polished and restrained, this is a class act that’s a bargain compared to Burgundy of similar ilk.
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.