2024 Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay
2024 Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay

2024 Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay

95 pts
Bannockburn |Geelong |Chardonnay
A benchmark Geelong Chardonnay from the iconic old vines by the cellar, offering purity, texture, and vibrant balance in every sip.
Price:
$79.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

The Winery Block sits right beside Bannockburn’s cellar door, planted back in 1981 when the place was first being built. These P58 Chardonnay vines have quietly shaped the estate’s house style over decades - think layered, pure, and unmistakably Geelong.

2024 was a warm season, and the grapes were picked over several passes to nail both freshness and depth. The winemaking stayed pretty classic: whole-bunch pressing, wild yeast fermentation in French oak (around 40% new), full malo, then ten months on lees. It’s all about letting the place shine.

What you end up with is beautifully balanced Chardonnay – white peach and citrus are up front, followed by struck match and a subtle hay note. The texture is silky and pulled together with a lively, chalky acid that keeps you coming back for more. It’s elegant, grounded, and utterly Bannockburn.

95+ points
"this is engaging from the moment you stick your nose in the glass."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

Philip Rich

Philip Rich

Halliday Wine Companion 95 Points

Whole-bunch pressed and fermented and matured in French hogsheads and puncheons (40% new); 100% mlf. A very bright green gold. With it aromas of white nectarine, sea spray, gently grilled cashew and just a hint of fresh vanillin, this is engaging from the moment you stick your nose in the glass. Like the '23, this is simultaneously mouth-filling, textured and with enough backbone to ensure that this will continue to evolve over the next six to eight years at least.

Campbell Mattinson

Campbell Mattinson

The Wine Front 95 Points

The Winery Block has been the bedrock of Bannockburn Chardonnay over the years. It was planted in 1981, and is the largest planting of chardonnay on the estate.

This is stellar. It’s a wine of both power and length and with a bit of extra character as well. Apples, peaches, slips of pear skin and nuts, perhaps some stonefruit pips as well, or certainly something that seems both fruity and woody at once. It’s not reticent or restrained but nor is it exaggerated; it’s alive with flavour, fit and firing you could say, ripped with muscle and energy. Touch and go for 96. In any case it’s superb.

Winery Block was planted in 1981 alongside the construction of the winery and has played a formative role in shaping our Chardonnay identity. In many ways, the heart of Bannockburn Chardonnay, this vineyard is a consistent and brilliant expression of our site.

Viticulture

Winery Block was planted in 1981 to P58 Chardonnay and remains our largest single vineyard site. While it typically ripens early, picking is spaced over many days to reflect variation across the 5.3-acre block. This single vineyard selection is made each year based on the vintage conditions. Soils range from dark brown clay to sandier topsoil, over weathered basalt and limestone.

Winemaking

Handpicked parcels of fruit were whole bunch pressed, settled overnight, and racked to barrels for a wild yeast fermentation in French oak hogsheads; approximately 40% was new oak. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally on 100% of the blend and completed in spring. The wine was left on lees, unstirred, for 10 months prior to blending and bottling.

Tasting Note

Very classic to Bannockburn. Bright acid and lovely balance, mostly sourced from the first pick in this warmer year. There’s purity and clarity to the fruit, with notes of white peach, citrus, and a touch of struck match, all wrapped in fine texture and line. A harmonious expression of the Chardonnay clone P58 that speaks clearly of place, with great flavour, balance and persistence.

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type White
Body Full Bodied
Variety Chardonnay
Country Australia
Region Geelong
Australian State VIC
Reviewed By The Wine Front
Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 95
Alcohol 13.5%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

Bannockburn

For over 50 years, Bannockburn has been a quiet force in Australian fine wine. The story began in 1974 when Stuart Hooper discovered and planted this now-iconic site in Victoria’s Moorabool Valley. In 1978, Gary Farr joined as winemaker, bringing a Burgundian lens that helped define the estate’s identity.

Today, Matt Holmes leads the winemaking, first stepping in for the 2005 vintage and returning permanently in 2015 after Michael Glover’s departure. Holmes’ style is thoughtful and site-first - guided by organics, minimal intervention, and an intuitive feel for balance. His Chardonnays are chiseled and composed. The Pinot Noirs - more precise than ever - are some of Victoria's best.

Viticulturist Lucas Grigsby, a 30-year veteran, tends the vines with the same hands-on, regenerative mindset. Together, they farm sustainably - straw mulching, composting, and nurturing cover crops - all to express the site with absolute clarity.

Bannockburn’s single-vineyard range tells the deeper story. S.R.H. Chardonnay draws tension and salinity from ancient marine sediments. The iconic Serré vineyard, planted densely in 1984, channels a Grand Cru sensibility. These are wines shaped by place, not ego. They hum with Burgundian influence, but speak fluently in an Australian accent.

Winemaker Matt Holmes - Geelong, VIC Bannockburn

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