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Astonishing Beechworth Chardonnay
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There's plenty of great Chardonnay produced in Australia, so who lays claim to be the country's best region? Of course, ultimately, it's subjective and there'd be hot competition from GIs far and wide, but we certainly think Beechworth would need to be in the conversation.
Though the quality of Beechworth Chardonnay isn't a new thing, the growth in small, high-quality producers has risen rapidly in recent times, and there's never been a more exciting time to drink their wares.
All wines below are available now at our special offer prices for the next 7 days only. To place your order, simply click on the links below or return the attached form, by email, by fax on 03 9419 6970 or call us on 03 9419 6990.
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Rick Kinzbrunner established the Beechworth site in 1982 and since then has forged an incredible reputation for being the benchmark for Australian Chardonnay, producing wines of incredible balance and power.
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2019 Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
Usually $229 - Special Offer $209
Ah, Giaconda Chardonnay: the one that goes to eleven.
Full golden colour. Lots of struck match, bacon, and spicy oak, wheat germ, aniseed, tangerine and peel. Brassy golden fruit – sort of red apple, peach and mixed citrus. And SO intense, it’s almost painful to drink (at least as at now). Acidity is very firm running hard through a gently viscous glossiness. Flinty texture and chalky grip is on offer too. Long spicy finish of browned butter and toasted lime. It does not lack complexity, and it does not lack power, though there’s arguably too much of everything to make it pleasant drinking now. A few more years in bottle should see it purring.
95+ Points
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
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Jen and Barry Morey of Sorrenberg continue to create; what we have known for some time, spectacular hand-made wines. From early on in the piece, the Moreys have understood the necessity of looking after the ground and ecosystems in which the vines lay their roots, employing sustainable farming to ensure vine health is the best it possibly can be. This, together with traditional vinification and careful oak treatment, yields wines that speak of the care and attention shown to them by the husband and wife duo who craft them.
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2019 Sorrenberg Chardonnay
Usually $139 - Special Offer $129
It’s a slightly more acid driven release from 2019 with licks of honey water and sweet lime juice as the main part of the conversation. From 2018 to 2019 we see, a less rich, less pulpy, less fleshy and less powerful release, though the same swoop of judicious oak seasoning, curls of nutty savouriness and a light, salty sparkle of minerally things through the finish are familiar. I like the freshness here, drinkability right now is off the charts, it spreads itself a little wider in the palate; perhaps its early appeal keeps it off a higher plain? It’s complex and layered as always – the fruit does this, there’s so much detail in each sip, and the finish is ultra long and fine. A masterclass with the variety again, with wonderful variation of another emphatic growing season. And that’s the way you do it.
96+ Points
Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
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Domenica sits 460m above sea level atop the granite ridge sweeping away to the south west of Beechworth. The wines are vividly reflective of their origin, a gripping mineral texture encasing the mature vine vitality of the varietals chosen to express it.
Winemaking is traditional. Taste is more important than numbers. The yeasts comes from the site, not a packet. Pressings, solids and lees all play their part completing the picture. The wines are carefully maintained in oak bariques before being bottled unfiltered.
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2019 Domenica Chardonnay
Usually $49 - Special Offer $44
Grown on a south facing slope, the fruit is hand picked lightly crushed, and basket pressed. The heaviest solids are briefly settled out by gravity, then the juice transferred to barriques awaiting the start of fermentation. This occurs naturally, when it is ready, and takes as long as it takes.
Well balanced fruit will contain everything required to ferment to dryness. Naturally formed sulphides occur in some barrels – usually to a point which produces the beautiful nutty, matchstick characters so symbiotic with chardonnay. New oak is used judiciously.
The wine is matured in its original barrel, on yeast lees for around 18 months before blending to tank, where it is naturally fined, then bottled unfiltered under screwcap closure.
Winery Notes
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Very much part of the new wave of up and comers in Beechworth, Chris Catlow crafts wines of great intensity and detail at Sentio. Despite playing with fruit from other areas like the Yarra Valley, Macedonand Tumbarumba, Beechworth is very much his home and Chardonnay his signature.
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2019 Sentio Beechworth Chardonnay
Usually $62 - Special Offer $57
It’s raised in foudre and clay eggs and it is, quite frankly, bristling with quality.
This is a terrific chardonnay. Elegant and slender and yet it makes an impression. Chalk, honeysuckle, woodsmoke and pretty white flowers meet pure peach, into grapefruit, into steel. Resiny oak raises its head at first (from foudre, I know) but it settles back quickly and extraordinarily well. The result is a wine of such elegance, such interest, and such length. I was kicking myself that I opened/tasted/reviewed it on an Alcohol Free Day. I want to dive straight in.
95 Points
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
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These wines are available now at our special offer prices for the next 7 days only. To place your order simply click on the links above or return the attached form, by email, by fax on 03 9419 6970 or call us on 03 9419 6990.
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