2019 Giaconda Chardonnay

Tasted blind. Matured for 20 months in French oak barrels (20% new). Tons of sulphidic influence: matchstick, flint. Incredibly juiciness beneath. This has the style of great Victoria Chardonnay, to me. Really smart, thanks to the underlying fruit ripeness. (RH)

Singed bush, eucalypt, campfire remains and black tea rise out of the glass of this 2019 Chardonnay. Beneath it all, there's struck match, salty reduction and layers of preserved lemon, brine and a hint of camphor. In the mouth, the wine forges a path across the palate, stopping for no man (or woman), and cascades off the back of the palate into a long abyss of endless flavor. It spools and spirals, and if it had a sound, it would fade slowly until it was hard to discern between sensation and memory. This is an utter pleasure to drink, to consider and to smell. With an inexhaustible length of flavor, it is immune to hyperbole. Drink it whenever you like to drink Chardonnay—for me, that's from 2023 onward.

A Chardonnay kingpin, with multi-layered cordite and matchstick aromas that snuggle up to plush apricot and sweet spices. We use the same words to describe so many Chardonnays, yet the quality of flavours here really is a class apart. It's a wonderful, wonderful rendition – soulful, lengthy, complex – and totally ready to drink now. (RH)