Mac Forbes Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2018

Mac was in Sydney in late August with a bag of new releases. An invitation to lunch at Mr. Wong was never going to be turned down so it was there where a group of us tasted through all of the new 2018 releases, plus a range of back-vintage wines to get a sense of how they age with time in bottle. 

For the first time ever, Mac has made more single vineyard Chardonnays than Pinot Noirs. This is the tightest of the bunch, driven forward by citrus tones (lime leaf, lemon pith) in conjunction with great natural acidity and saline flavours. It’s this salty/rockpool character that I love most about this wine, and trying it next to the 2012 over lunch gives me great confidence in the way that this will develop over time. The 2012 was similarly salty and had fleshed-out quite a bit in the mid-palate, with a nice waxiness to the green apple fruit. – Ches Cook, FWC.