Margaret River vs The Rest
A Public Holiday Chardonnay Masterclass
24 Australian Chardonnays…from 23 producers
Margaret River
Cullen Wines | Deep Woods | Howard Park | Leeuwin Estate | Moss Wood | Peccavi / Cape Falls | Pierro | Rowe Wines | Stella Bella | Vasse Felix | Xanadu
The ‘Rest’
Bream Creek | By Farr | Giaconda | Grosset | Mount Mary | Murdoch Hill | Penfolds | Savaterre | Shaw + Smith | Singlefile | Stargazer | Stefano Lubiana
Monday, September 28th
Hosted by JJ
Masterclass: 4 - 6pm | 24 wines & canapés | $325
The Wine List
~ In alphabetical order ~
Bream Creek Reserve Chardonnay 2024
2023 Cape Falls Chardonnay
2024 Cullen Kevin John Wilyabrup Chardonnay
97 points, Cassandra Charlick, Decanter
For a year that was faster, hotter and drier than any other year in Margaret River's history, there is certainly no need to worry about the effect on the elegance expected from a bottle of Kevin John. Vibrant and chirpy citrus tones open on the nose – lemon pith, lime zest, pear skin, grapefruit pith, spring blossoms and a little dried ginger and dried herbs. The fruit sings through the fragrant oak (50% new, six months) like a bell, loud and clear. There's joyful dance party energy on the palate, with crystalline fruit tickling all corners of the mouth and sunlit acidity, fine yet bright. Layers of flavour, a concentration of fruit that pools from the mid-palate. A balance of power and purity, with a graceful honesty that charms and a wine that speaks of place with a salt-kissed memory.
2024 Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay
97 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
A powerhouse of a wine, yet with precision etched all over. There are so many layers to this; where to start? Well, how about with the flinty, funky reduction that's scintillating, flavours of grapefruit and lemon, cedary spicy oak, not too much, and the fleck of herbs. This is super tight and pure, with the acidity cinching everything in and leading it out to a long, persistent finish. A cracking chardonnay. Screw cap. 13.5% alcohol.
2024 G.C by Farr Chardonnay
2024 Giaconda Estate Vineyard Chardonnay
99 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
The 2024 Chardonnay Estate Vineyard is a picture of poise and power. Smoky, flinty elements lead from the front, well supported by rich aromas of musky peach, oat bran and just-ripe nectarine. All is enhanced by a thick, velvety blanket of French oak. The 2024 delivers brilliant complexity amongst a powerhouse of flavour, laced with fine layers of cream and buttered popcorn and underpinned by piercing acidity. What stands out most of all is the finish: intense, precise, dignified and sustained, holding its shape and tension for what seems like an eternity. A classic vintage with a long life ahead.
2024 Grosset Piccadilly Chardonnay
96 points, Mike Bennie, Halliday Wine Companion
A silky textured, inwardly concentrated release with fresh nashi pear, red apple, light gingery spice elements, halva and brine as the mainstays of descriptors. The potency gives a sense of power but there's control and elegance here, too. A graceful, salivating white of medium to fuller weight with impeccable balance and length. It's a star. Screw cap. 12.7% alcohol.
2023 Howard Park Allingham Chardonnay
96 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
There's been a real shift in the Howard Park wines since chief winemaker Nic Bowen joined in '21 and now with 'his' vintages coming to fruition, it's wonderful to witness. This is excellent. It's flinty and a little funky thanks to the whisper of sulphides yet lots of delicious citrus, spice and savoury oak, the latter superbly integrated. Everything comes together brilliantly all tied with a neat bow of acidity leading to a persistent finish. Screw cap. 12.5% alcohol.
2023 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
97 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
As you'd expect from an excellent vintage and a producer of exceptional chardonnay, this is superb. It glimmers light straw and olive in the glass, and it's superbly modulated – from the flavours to the texture. It is quite a pared-back style, tight and linear with restrained power, savoury and moreish. Just another cracking Art Series Chardonnay. Screw cap. 13.5% alcohol.
2024 Moss Wood Wilyabrup Chardonnay
96 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous
The 2024 Chardonnay Wilyabrup is full throttle, offering decadent layers of peach, nectarine and mango seamlessly intertwined with buttery tones and French oak, the majority of which was new. A powerhouse of creamy flavor is accented by chalky acidity, with a strong line of more savory nutty tones carrying through to a long, well defined finish. Fabulous.
2021 Mount Mary Vineyard Chardonnay
96 points, Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
Hand picked, 20% whole-bunch pressed, the balance crushed and destemmed. Matured in French puncheons and barriques (30% new) for 11 months. A light, bright gold with green tinges. Seductive with its bouquet of melon, fresh fig, yellow peach, chamomile and a little lemongrass. A savoury nuance, too. On the palate, which is powerful, densely packed and structured, you'll find some grapefruit pith and hazelnut. Finishes extremely long, saline and gently grippy. Screw cap. 13.2% alcohol.
2022 Pierro Vintage Reserve Chardonnay
97 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
100% gin-gin clone. 100% malolactic. 100% Pierro. Lime, pear, biscuity clove and ginger oak, floral too. It's powerful with plenty of flavour, pine-lime and melon, nutty and creamy with a honey gloss, a powdery and flinty grip to texture, bright citrus acidity, some savoury oak influence, with a soaring finish of superb length. It's ripe but has freshness, balance and energy. So impressive. Margaret River power in full flight.
2023 Rocket Lenswood Chardonnay
96 points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Powerful aromas of lemon confit, minerals, oyster shells, chalk and candied lime zest. The palate is medium-bodied with underlying power framed by focused acidity, giving notes of fresh pineapple, green apple skin and grapefruit pith. Exceptionally well balanced and tightly constructed. Screw cap.
2024 Rowe Single Site Karridale Chardonnay
2024 Savaterre Chardonnay
97 points, Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion
Here is the art of winemaker laid bare, in all of its beauty as well as mystery. It's a slow reveal, all the better to take in a wine both plush in fruit and fine in structure, citrusy fresh and oak defined, savoury influenced and varietally pure. Complex, tangy fresh aromas arrive Beechworth-bright before leading into a tightly packed, concentrated palate of lemon citrus, grapefruit, stone fruits and toasted almonds creamily textured with honeysuckle aromatics. A suitable ending with saline cut and grip on the long finish. Screw cap. 13.5% alcohol.
2021 Singlefile The Vivienne Chardonnay
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Singlefile's Family Reserve Chardonnay plays things with a straight bat; this Vivienne is more 'square of the wicket'. It's a flinty, funky number, intense, coiled, serious and impressive. There's a lot going on here but it's cohesive and integrated, and the fruit itself is ripe and powerful. It's not 'sulphides in water'; it's sulphides in pure, glorious, penetrating fruit. It tastes of grapefruit, fresh green apples, chalk, cedar and bacon, the latter character a hand in the air but not a statement. This wine is not blousy or big but it certainly takes command of the glass. It's got a body, it's got some moves, and it keeps on going.
2019 Stella Bella Luminosa Chardonnay
97 points, Erin Larkin, Halliday Wine Companion
Hand picked, whole-bunch pressed, wild ferment in French oak. Pink grapefruit, salted yellow peach, curry leaf and crushed nuts. It's worked, but it has got it all, including a core of pure fruit on the palate. Like a Tardis, this wine contains more flavour than it lets on. Ripples of flavour slowly radiate out from its centre, keeping the drinker engaged for quite some time. Gorgeous, salivating stuff. Special. Screw cap. 13.3% alcohol.
2023 Stella Bella Suckfizzle Chardonnay
97 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
Just an observation but Suckfizzle is now price-matched to the Luminosa as of this vintage. Fair enough, as both are superb expressions of the variety, site and region. An excellent vintage yet the wines need more cellar time, they are tight. This is as flinty as fireworks, with mouth-watering sulphides that infuse the grapefruit and lemon flavours. It's steely cool with snips of fresh herbs, oyster shell and lemon saline, almost a sea-spray character, that's so alluring. The oak (38% new and aged nine months) is superbly integrated, the texture light as a feather, as lemon sorbet-like acidity glides across the finely tuned palate. Screw cap. 13% alcohol.
2024 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay
97 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
The Heytesbury DNA is loud and clear. It's driven by pristine fruit flavours – all grapefruit and lemon – powered by moreish, savoury, complex flavours of gunflint, match-strike sulphides, superbly integrated oak and mouth-watering acidity. It's just one of the great chardonnays. Simple as that really. Screw cap. 13.5% alcohol.
2022 Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay
96 points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Wonderfully complex and mineral-driven aromas of lime curd, lemon confit, sea spray and nougat. The palate is tightly bound with energetic acidity and powerful underlying notes of gunsmoke, grapefruit pith, orange blossoms and jasmine. Polished with incredibly high tension. Pure class. Screw cap.