Winemaker Tim Stevens produces wines that shine with bottle age. With 40% new French oak used in this Special Reserve Chardonnay, its shape improved over a couple of days of tasting.
It opens with aromas of glace mango, peaches and lemon curd and yellow-fleshed stonefruit. These flow through to the palate and are joined by buttered toast, lashings of lemon lime splice with fine lines of Jersey caramel and a sherberty tang. The longer it sits sees pastry and bready feels rise up but the creamy oak is muscular and boisterous for now certainly playing its hand. Certainly a wine that can be pigeonholed in the 'old school' file, a fine leesy texture lingers with some ginger spice. Let it rest for a couple of years and it will morph into a different wine. For now, it's pretty good.
Drink to eight years+
91/100
Region: Mudgee
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