2024 Gentle Folk Scary Gully Chardonnay

95 pts
Skeletal, beautifully crafted Chardonnay from Gareth Belton's Scary Gully vineyard in the Basket Range of the Adelaide Hills.

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Sale price$75.00
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In stock, ready to ship
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Description

Scary Gully is one of the most distinctive vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, a windswept ridge at 620 metres above sea level in Forest Range. Planted in 1984, it’s a site that always produces wines with incredible tension and precision -  and the 2024 Chardonnay is no exception.

The soils here are shallow and rocky, full of quartz and sandstone, which give this wine its trademark mineral edge. The 2024 season was mild but low-yielding, and what little fruit was picked has produced a Chardonnay of rare focus and intensity. It’s driven and pure, full of citrus, fennel, and white peach, underpinned by a line of savoury, stony grip that runs the length of the palate.

Whole-bunch pressed and wild fermented, the wine spent 11 months in French and Austrian oak (20% new) before resting in tank prior to bottling. It’s elegant but full of character - a perfect reflection of both the site and Gareth Belton’s thoughtful, restrained approach in the cellar.

94 points
"Mineral drive and vivid aromas of sliced lemons, slate, citrus blossoms and phosphorous. The palate is mid-weighted with striking acidity and a generous texture. Minerals and stones in the mouthwatering finish. There’s a great core of tightly wound fruit. Drink or hold."
- Ryan Montgomery (James Suckling)

Scary Gully has a fine boned line from the shallow rocky soils its grown on high up in Forest Range. The wine is all about the minerality with hints of lime, fennel seeds, alpine herbs and white peach. Its driven, it’s distinct, it’s one of the great sites in the Adelaide Hills. Sadly, the yields from 2024 were minuscule and there are limited bottles, but the resulting wine has length and drive we have not seen before from this site

Vineyard: Scary Gully, Forest Range

Planted: 1984

Clones: Entav 84

Elevation: 620m

Aspect: SW

Soils: quartz rubble of siltstone, sandstone and clay

Vinification: whole bunches were pressed into to tank for settling overnight before racking off solids to barrel. The wine spent 11 months in French and Austrian oak, 20% new, before racking to tank for three months and bottled.

Harvest date: 29 March 2024

Bottled: 23 May 2025

Alc: 13.2%

pH: 3.36

TA: 5.7 g/L

Production: 1455 bottles

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type White
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Chardonnay
Country Australia
Region Adelaide Hills
Australian State SA
Feature High Score
Reviewed By James Suckling
The Wine Front
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Cork

Gentle Folk

Gareth and Rainbo Belton are the Gentle Folks, both in name and in sensibility. They are gentle, soulful people, both originally seaweed experts, who turned their hands to farming grapes with an organic and sustainable approach. Today they are crafting some of the most legitimately exciting and exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Adelaide Hills and are firmly rooted in the upper echelon of Australia's lo-fi wine scene.

Their wines cover multiple sub-regions across the Adelaide Hills. There are no additions during the winemaking process, save for a splash of SO2 at bottling to keep the wines pristine as they travel from the Beltons' home to yours. The worlds of fine wine and natural wine collide in the Gentle Folk range. They are beautiful people making increasingly breathtaking wines that you definitely want to check out.

Gareth Belton in one of his vineyards - Basket Range, Adelaide Hills, SA Gentle Folk

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