2023 Deep Woods Reserve Chardonnay

A mild spring with adequate soil moisture, resulted in a slightly later season. A moderate summer led to ideal ripening conditions with little vineyard pressure. Warm days and cool evenings made for great acid retention.

This assemblage of this wine is largely sourced from two premium central Wilyabrup vineyards, with additional fruit from a pristine site in Karridale. 100% Gin Gin clone.

The fruit was hand-picked and then chilled to maintain pristine condition. A minimalist approach in the winery included whole bunch pressing, wild fermentation and sparing lees stirring in a mixture of new and seasoned French oak. The individual parcels were kept separate and aged on lees for 9 months until the final wine was blended for bottling.

The wine is pale straw with cream/pearl hue in colour. There is an array of complex white floral aromas that leads into scratched citrus, grilled lime and white peach. Beneath the purest of fruit, the wine holds underlying cashew paste, nori and cardamom notes that merge with fennel seed, baked pastry and lemon rind. The palate has brilliant power and tension that is balanced by the sleekest core of fruit. Incredibly long and saline this wine has an effortless journey across the palate. Flavours of white stone fruit, lemon curd and bitter lime are captured by cheese cloth like textures that evolved from whole bunch pressing and an extended time on lees.

Structure. Drive. Complexity.  Australia’s Chardonnays stand so tall on the world stage, it’s just lucky for everybody the world hasn’t realised yet.

The 2023 Reserve Chardonnay, like the vintage, is just right – flinty mineral and fine but with great latent power and acid drive. A chardonnay for the ages and, like the vintage, my favourite Deep Woods Reserve Chardonnay ever.

Chardonnay.  Winemakers love it.  It feeds our god-complex as they are really hard to get right and house style is so important – but when they are right they are oh so righteous! Picking date is so crucial – a couple of days either side can completely change the wine style, like, completely!  As such I visit these Reserve Chardonnay vineyards basically on an almost daily basis when we are getting close to harvest. 100% Hand-picked which is very important, if not ruinously expensive, allows for fruit-chilling and whole-bunch pressing. This direct pressing to barrel and the complexity you get from these different barrel ferments, as every barrel is different, is what really drives the nuance and amazing structure in this wine.  Matured largely unsulphured for most of its journey in barrel, the assemblage of the differing barrels is almost as important as the pick date … thankfully you’re tasting wine by this point rather than grapes.  – Julian Langworthy

 Royal Queensland Wine Awards 2024  |  The Fleming Trophy for Best Chardonnay Wine of Show  |  Best Table Wine of Show  |  Gold Medal Winner    Sydney Royal Wine Show 2024  |  Gold Medal Winner

Lime, pink grapefruit, quite a lot of cashew, cinnamon pastry, some cut fennel, a wisp of flinty and smoky things. It has intensity and ripe grapefruity acid cut, something more saline and umami here too, bright and chalky in texture, with lime rind and grip on a finish of excellent length. It has zing and energy, though it really needs a few years in bottle to cool its boots and settle into its groove. 95+ points. Gary Walsh, The Winefront Aug 2024