2022 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay

Twist of matchstick and gunsmoke on the opening, this is steely, mineral and powerful, still coming round to its drinking window. As such, it will benefit from a carafe to highlight the stone fruit, citrus and sage character, along with the deliciously gentle crush of grated ginger on the finish. Unfiltered and unfined, 30% new oak. 2022 was a slightly cooler and rainier season than average, and the palate has a slice less grip than the 2021, with a focus on juice and savoury fruit. A beautiful wine from this distinctive granite and clay soils.
97/100 Jane Anson

The 2022 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay reveals wonderfully expressive scents of white peaches, fresh pears, and juicy grapefruit, leading to hints of struck match, fresh ginger, and lime blossoms with a touch of marzipan. The medium-bodied palate is satiny-sleek and refreshing, delivering mouth-coating citrus and orchard fruit layers with a long mineral-laced finish.
97/100+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown; The Wine Independent

(Beechworth, Victoria; 100% Chardonnay; from a terroir of gravel over clay in the foothills of the Victorian Alps; a total production of just 1000 cases; aged for 12 months in oak barrels, 30% of which were new). Wow. This reminds me so much of my first encounter with this wine this time last year. It has great singularity. It’s also supremely well-named, being likely to bring a (suitably enigmatic) smile to the face of even the most tight-lipped of wine-lovers this year, as last. Salted peanuts. Freshly cut grass. Hay. An explosive combination of cordite and that distinctly flinty minerality that I recall so well – think of striking a spark from flint on the beach, with just a hint of sea spray and iodine in the background. Beaswax too. On the palate, I find this a little sweeter in its fruit profile that the 2020, with a touch of exoticism to temper the biting crunch of the apple and the freshness of the yuzu and assorted citrus notes. Maybe a little blood orange too. Peach and a trace of rose water. And hazelnut too. Fabulously complex and a wine that, however gorgeous it is in its infancy, deserves as it will reward patience.
98/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business