The 2022 Yattarna Chardonnay comprises fruit from Tumbarumba (61%), Tasmania (particularly Coal River Valley, 26%) and the balance from the Adelaide Hills. This wine ages slowly and gracefully, and I love it for that. The phenolics frame a powerful core of fruit that is at once streamlined and wide. It blankets the mouth and persists long after the wine is gone. At this stage, it feels inchoate in its development: tiny fish hooks of texture and a frisky sort of acid line both indicate that the wine has some time to go before it fully realizes its potential. This is forever the blue-chip investment in this collection for my taste, and there is a perpetually seamless cohesion of malolactic fermentation into the wine. The Yattarna is fully inoculated with estate-developed yeast strains, built in conjunction over time with the AWRI. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.11 and 6.8 grams per liter of total acidity, and it matured for eight months in French barriques (44% new). Drink Date: 2024 - 2042
- Wine Advocate 97+
