2025 Dappled Appellation Chardonnay

94 pts
Shaun Crinion's cult-status Yarra Chardonnay, blending the best of upper and lower valley fruit into one of Australia's great wine bargains.

Price:
Sale price$45.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

Shaun Crinion's Appellation Chardonnay has built a devoted following as one of the best-value Chardonnays in the country, and the 2025 keeps that run going. It's the blended expression in the Dappled range, pulling fruit from several Yarra Valley sites to build something more complete than any single vineyard could provide on its own.

The fruit comes from St Andrews, Steels Creek, and Seville, across both upper and lower valley, with four clones in the mix: P58, I10V1, and Dijons 76 and 95. Hand-picked, chilled overnight, foot-crushed, then long-pressed straight to a mix of 80% old and 20% new French oak in various sizes. Wild ferment, no temperature control, no battonage, 10 months on lees. Lightly filtered, unfined.

The 2025 comes across as tightly coiled and savoury early on, with citrus and stone fruit character and a salty, fresh quality on the palate. It opens up with some air and gets more generous and textural as it breathes. It's elegant and focused, probably more so than in some years, but with the trademark Dappled texture and flesh still present too.

We have been all-in on Dappled since day 1 and buy as much as we can, but it's still not nearly enough. A drop-dead delicious Chardonnay at a price that continues to make it one of the easier recommendations we make.

94 points
"Dappled does it again. This wine is both seriously impressive and seriously delicious... Every sip of this wine makes you want another."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

94 points - "Dappled does it again.

This wine is both seriously impressive and seriously delicious. It tastes of grapefruit, pear, citrus, peach and whispers of both cedar and flint. But it’s the wine as a whole, and its cohesion, and its general juiciness that is the main take, and the main attraction. Every sip of this wine makes you want another. There’s a chalky-steeliness to the finish and plenty of fruit there too. In summary, it’s bang on." - Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

Customer Reviews

A blend of upper and lower Yarra Vineyards - Clones P58, I10V1 and Dijon clones 76 and 95 - from vineyards in St Andrews, Steels Creek and Seville. All fruit is hand-picked and cooled overnight, followed by whole bunches being lightly crushed by foot before a long pressing when the un-sulphured juice is transferred straight to oak. The oak is a combination of 80% old and 20% new French Barriques, Puncheons and Demi-Muids. Ferments are allowed to start naturally (wild) and complete with no temperature control. The wine is not battonaged and left on lees for 10 months where some MLF may have occurred, but not encouraged, and SO2 is added when the wine is ready for it. The wine is lightly filtered before being bottled un-fined.

Tasting Notes:
Aromas of white peach, citrus blossom, mille-feuille and toasted nuts. The palate is quite savoury with salty lime freshness, but the weight and texture builds with time and you’ll start to see the trademark juicy stone fruit flavours. It’s tightly-coiled and as usual with be fantastic now with some air, or a few years in the cellar if you can wait!

Price Bracket $41 to $50
Type White
Body Full Bodied
Variety Chardonnay
Country Australia
Region Yarra Valley
Australian State VIC
Reviewed By The Wine Front
Critic Score 94
Alcohol 13%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2025
Closure Screw Cap

Dappled Wines

Dappled owner/winemaker Shaun Crinion has a mountain of winemaking experience from around the globe, culminating with the establishment of a label all of his own.

Shaun's focus is on expressing the sub-regionality of the Yarra Valley through simply gorgeous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and a growing range of experimental wines.

With the combination of Shaun's A-grade fruit from the Yarra's top growers and his precise, astute winemaking, the value on offer in the Dappled range is second to none.

He was James Halliday's Best New Winery in 2018. The wines have only stepped in quality since then though the modest pricing remains the same. Unsurprisingly, his wines sell out in short order each year. He's now regarded as one of the best small-scale producers in the modern Yarra Valley.

Winemaker Shaun Crinion - Yarra Valley, VIC Dappled Wines

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