2013 Giaconda Chardonnay Victoria

A really beautiful wine with sliced pineapple, lemon, mango and hints of stone. It’s full-bodied and layered. Honeysuckle and lemon rind. Long and creamy. Just starting to show its age.

Over 400 m elevation on a cool, south-facing slope. Gravity-flow winery. Grapes are hand picked, crushed and basket pressed before a cold settle and racking into 30% new French oak barrel for fermentation and maturation. Wines are matured underground in Rick’s granite caves, 20–25 m deep with a constant temperature of 16 ºC, for up to 21 months. Full malolactic fermentation and no filtration. Tasted blind. Pale greenish gold. Broad, warm pear nose with quite a bit of weight and less obvious acidity than is customary in Australian Chardonnays. Rather comfortable wine that seems to have been organically grown rather than constructed in the winery. Bit like an old pair of (very luxurious) slippers. Relatively approachable. Sweeter than most. This was very impressive initially but fell apart rather and became a bit heavier in the glass. This vintage was screwcapped, by the way. (JR)

The 2013 Chardonnay has a youthfully reticent nose of ripe apricots, grapefruit and crushed cashews with ginger, cedar, struck match and orange blossoms in the background. The palate is a medium to full-bodied powerhouse, possessing a satiny texture, many layers, a great acid backbone and wonderful length.