Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really fantastic with a deep and dense palate of dried lemon, apple and white peach. Fruity yet so structured. Great finish. Need time still to show it all but what a white. Screw cap.
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Wine & Spirits
Virginia Willcock selects this wine from the top-performing blocks of the Holmes a Court family vineyards, three sites in Wilyabrup on gravelly loam over clay. She ferments it in barriques without added yeast, and does not encourage malolactic, sustaining enough brisk freshness to handle the richness she’s attained through nine months of lees stirring. Willcock’s masterful work with oak is apparent in the reductive aspects in this wine, the kind of sulfury minerality you might find in a young Burgundy. Here it points up the cool fruit flavors and a salty note in the finish. The texture is broad and substantial, then the wine narrows and tightens, lasting on an umami savor of roasted veal and brighter hints of flowers.
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Wine Spectator
Stylish, with a dried floral note weaving in and out of the green apple, lemon and melon flavors. Shows focused acidity and a long finish.
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.
Home to some of Australia’s most elegant and long-lived red and white wines, Margaret River is situated in the farthest reaches of Western Australia. Relatively warm and dry, the region is cooled by breezes from the Indian Ocean. Margaret River takes some inspiration from Bordeaux, producing top-quality Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux Blends with firm structure, mouthwatering acidity, balanced alcohol and notes of herbs and spice. For white wines, refreshing blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon as well as complex, age-worthy Chardonnays are regional specialties.