Chardonnay, Mount Mary 2023

The 2023 Chardonnay is nutty and restrained, with a salty splay of acidity through the middle palate and finish. The wine is creamy, layered and sophisticated, and it is shaped by taut phenolics that support the abundance of fruit flavor in the mouth. After just one sip at the beginning of this note, the flavors and chalky texture can still be felt. An excellent wine each year, this 2023 no exception. There are notes of biscotti, spiced almonds, cashew, white peach, sea salt and stewed apple. What a gorgeous wine this is. It is harmonious. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

A wonderful balance of power and restraint, with complex aromas sitting on the edge of reduction — preserved lemons, lanolin, honeysuckle, struck matches, crushed stones, citrus blossoms and white stone fruits. The palate has seamless texture and weight, in harmony with a core of fruit-supported, tightly wound acidity and a mineral drive. The concentration leaves you salivating for minutes. Great nerve and tension bring this wine together. Truly excellent. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Fine cedar, pithy white grapefruit, lemon butter, and white nectarine rise from the glass before present-but-integrated flint and almond meal build into the wine, adding savoury appeal. Some time in the glass unlocks salted cashew, along with mineral finesse and lift that shoots through the aromatic core while attaching to the flintiness. The palate has remarkable impact, balancing weight and tension with a gorgeous, supple texture wrapping around white peach, lime skin, flint, almond cream, fine cedar, and saline. Not to labour the point, but the texture here is flawless and eminently attractive – such density and concentration, while brilliantly focused and defined. The phenolics are tight and chalky, putting a corset around the power, and the length is seemingly endless. A remarkable expression of this iconic Yarra Valley terroir. Drink from 2025-2034.