Wine Region: Multiple Regions

(2025) An elegant Chardonnay blended from vineyards in various Australian regions, this is delicately oaked and weighs in with just 12.5% alcohol. Immediately attractive on the nose with its sheen of almond or oatmeal over peachy fruit hinting at apricot, the palate follows through with charming, easy-drinking fruit sweetness. The lemon jelly acidity and touch of creamy oak makes for a pleasing, well-balanced finish. Watch the video for more information.

(2023) I tasted this shortly after tasting a £25 Oregon Chardonnay which is very unfair, but then it does say 'Chardonnay' on the front label, and that it is made by 'carefully selecting parcels of the best grapes,' on the back label, so... It has a very generic alcohol-free character on the nose - hard to describe, but a vague and herbal, appley character that to me is common in these wines, whichever grape they are made from. The process here has stripped the character one might expect from an inexpensive Hardy's Chardonnay, to leave a thin, basically dry, and unremarkable alcohol-free alternative. Also in Morrisons and Ocado.

(2022) A multi-regional blend from vineyards in the Adelaide Hills (South Australia), Tasmania and Tumbarumba (New South Wales), this was fermented in French oak barriques and aged eight months, 35% of the barriques new. It saw 100% malolactic fermentation and lees stirring. This one combines toast and nuttiness with that flinty aspect in interesting combination - possibly thanks to combining fruit from such different areas. Lovely, rounded, fruit-filled palate with a definite creaminess, the acidity here pithy and lemony, coming in slightly more abrubtly than in the Forrest Hill for example.