Description
This is Chardonnay pared back to its bare bones - and all the better for it.
From a high, east-facing slope in Yarra Glen’s Nenagh Park vineyard, the fruit for this wine comes off lean, gravelly soils that lend it a cool, coiled energy.
Tom and Sally Belford have been making wines like this for over a decade now, and every year they seem to get a little more dialled in. The 2023 Chardonnay is as restrained and tightly wound as any they’ve made. Direct-pressed and wild-fermented in seasoned hogsheads, it spent nine months on lees in barrel, then a further seven in stainless steel. There’s no new oak, no fining, no filtration.
The result is a finely etched white, all citrus pith, wet stone and subtle almond meal. There’s texture and depth, but it’s carried with grace rather than weight.
If you like your Chardonnay clean-lined and tightly-wound, this is a pristine example from two very lovely humans.
95 points
"This is bell ring clear. It’s kind of gentle but vividly fresh. Green apple crunch, tart lime juice zestiness, an undertow of almond and hazelnut but gently there with cooling, briny minerality on show. It does savouriness well, it does refreshment well. It has this distinct sense of complexity and detail in the fruit profile, light seasoning of spice, that mineral vein that lands at the lip-smacking end of the spectrum. It’s a ripper."
- Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)
| Price Bracket | $41 to $50 |
| Type | White |
| Body | Light Bodied |
| Variety | Chardonnay |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | Yarra Valley |
| Australian State | VIC |
| Feature |
Natural/Lo-Fi |
| Reviewed By |
Halliday Wine Companion The Wine Front |
| Critic Score |
95 93 |
| Size | 750ml |
| Vintage | 2023 |
| Closure | Cork |
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