Winemaker Notes
This wine is ideally served chilled with a leek tart or spinach and cheddar croque monsieur.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Translucent gold. Vibrant, mineral-tinged citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complemented by a honeysuckle nuance and a hint of smokiness. Shows impressive depth as well as energy sappy on the palate, offering juicy nectarine and pear flavors, along with a bracing jolt of bitter lemon pith. Powerful yet graceful in character, finishing minerally, focused and long, with building florality and a sneaky vanilla note. Barrel-fermented and aged in French oak puncheons, 25% of them new.
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle flint and toast notes weave between citrus and melon fruit and ginger. The palate is medium-bodied with a lovely prickle of acidity amid a chalky texture. There’s a long, lemon rind finish. Shows balance and drinkability but also seriousness, too. A lovely modern, food-friendly drop. Quintessential.
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Tasting Panel
Pale gold hue and a soft, fruity nose; silky and fresh, tangy and fully fruit driven. Smooth, juicy, and generous.
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.