Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Scented of warm peaches, spiced apples and honeydew melon with compelling hints of honeysuckle, baking bread and marzipan, the 2015 Chardonnay has a beautiful satiny texture with an elegant, medium body and seamless line of refreshing acidity, finishing long with savory yeasty/toasty layers.
Rating: 94+
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Wine & Spirits
The de Pury family established their vineyard in 1863 and replanted it after a nearly 80-year hiatus in 1969. David de Pury now farms the vines; his sister Sandra makes the wines. This 2015 is a deep yellow-gold, a tangy chardonnay that parallels Chablis in its briskness and mineral tension. It’s a wine of salty, creamy refinement, with nutmeat flavors that are fresh rather than oxidative. For Raveneau drinkers on a night off.
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.
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.