Decades Coal River Chardonnay 2024

DECADES is a collaborative project between these two characters [Steve Flamsteed, perhaps best known for his time in charge at Giant Steps, and Brad Rogers, co-founder of Stone & Wood] who first met whilst studying wine science at Adelaide University 35 years ago, and have always joked about starting a small production, high quality wine label together.  When this vineyard [Coal River, Tasmania] came up for grabs they jumped on it. 

This is a wine of power and length but finesse is its main calling card. It’s ultra fine boned. It tastes of lemon, thistles, white peach, almond cream, hay and honey, with a finish that tastes like bacon and cream in a pan seeded with fennel. Its texture, throughout, is like satin. I tasted this wine through the course of an afternoon and it barely budged, though sunshine did creep up over the horizon; cool, modest, sure, blue-light in with the yellow. We’re in elite territory here. Drinking this is like being invited to the birth of someone or something special. I’d call this wine an example of decades of expertise but really it’s a grape variety in a deeply southern landscape that’s been beautifully and sensitively caught. 95+ points. - Campbell mattinson, Wine Front.