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DE BORTOLI WINES Single Vineyard Section A7 Chardonnay, Yarra Valley

Sandro Mosele continues to take Kooyong's estate wines to heights unseen for the price. Focus, linear acidity and supreme elegance are all hallmarks of Sandro's work and all can be seen here. Along with great precision, comes lovely fruit characters also that work with a whole range of Asian-fusion cuisine.

Toolangi is a state forest just outside Healesville that was devastated during Black Saturday. The excellent vineyards remain, and continue to produce wines of personality and place. The Chardonnay combines varietal characters of quince and crab apple with some delicious nutty oak nuances. Its great value.

Shadowfax Chardonnay is blended from premium cool climate districts of southern Victoria. This Chardonnay crafted by Matt Harrop is elegant and complex with attractive varietal and barrel derived characters.

Easily affordable quality, the Paringa Chardonnay is made from high quality fruit from across the Morning Peninsula. An awesome balance of toasty oak and rich stone fruit flavours with real length and depth. One of the best mid $20 Chardonnays available and proof of Lindsay McCall's true talent.

Utterly delicious. Classic Strathbogie Riesling with a floral texture and a moorish finish. From a high elevation unirrigated vineyard, the vines are unrushed and once again delivered fruit of pure dimensions, stunning granite soil influence on the back palate.

David Bicknell is a Chardonnay perfectionist with a passion for terroir and contrasts in the characters of different vineyard sites. In the glass: Bright fine straw with a green hue. On the nose: Fabulous purity and lift with ripe, complex stonefruit combining with lees and struck match magic. On the palate: A complex funky monster! It shows tremendous depth and umami being satiny soft throughout with amazing refined power and balance and extraordinary length and persistence. Classy!

Spicy, faintly floral aromas of stone fruit, grapefruit, lime juice and coriander are backed by matchstick-like oak and a hint of mineral. It's round and creamy, smooth and voluptuous, with a gentle, mouthfilling core of flavour and nougat-like complexity finishing with a hint of butter, gentle lemony acids and a faint smokiness. Crushed and pressed with full solids straight to oak (20% new), both primary fermentation and malolactic were natural. Elevage: 8 months on lees in oak before being racked and filtered in preparation for bottling. Hand-picked on 12th March 2018 First established in 1995, Toolangi Vineyards is located in the Yarra Valley adjoining the Toolangi State Forest. This Chardonnay is grown on fine clay loam and produces grapes which represent the unique site. Low cropped and hand harvested from 23 year old vines of I1OV3 clone grapes on D Block rows 35 55. The 2018 harvest will be remembered fondly by winemakers in the Yarra Valley. It was a rare season that gave above average yields and excellent quality fruit. Dry sunny conditions with cool overnight temperatures provided good natural acidity and concentrated wines at lower alcohol levels.

Good flesh here though; medium-bodied, good weight and sweep of acidity with a crispness to the finish 95, 96 clone Chardonnay from two vineyards, one in Red Hill and one in Tuerong. Barrel ferment, lees stirred. 20% MLF. 15% new French oak. 10 months in the barrel. Sam, Kaspar and Will pick the fruit on the up-curve (i.e. crux of flavour and freshness) bearing in mind the warmer side of the Mornington Peninsula is part of the equation here.

Le Stagiaire Chardonnay is drawn mostly from Garagistes Merricks vineyard, with the balance coming from Balnarring and Tuerong. Barney Flanders doesn't make these wines specifically for this labelall his ferments start out as potential single-vineyard wines, so the single-site wines are barrel selections, with the remaining wines bottled under Le Stagiaire. This provides some idea of how this label is able over-deliver, year in year out.