Tolpuddle Chardonnay 2019
“This label is certain to grace some of the greatest Australian Pinots and Chardonnays in the years ahead: the vineyard (planted in 1988) is a Tasmanian jewel.” James Halliday, Wine Companion 2016.
This is one awesome Chardonnay – the eighth release from one of the great established vineyards in Tasmania. Established in 1988 the fruit has previously been sold to go into Penfolds Yattarna, Eileen Hardy, and top Chandon Sparkling. That is until Michael Hill-Smith and Martin Shaw purchased the vineyard. To quote Michael “there is an aromatic intensity to Southern Tasmanian fruit that is quite freaky”.
Really bright perfumed citrus, stone-fruit and honey, a touch of almond meal and perfumed white flowers – super fine and elegant with lasting intensity of varietal flavour. It must be the Tasmanian air through which the landscape feels incandescently present. The wine carries beautiful flavour all the way with a lean and long line of acid. It’s all about the acid balance, it’s crystalline. In this way it is like a great Grand Cru Chablis or Puligny-Montrachet. A secret to the mouthfeel is that the fruit develops flavour at low Baume, and thus is light on its feet. From tasting some older vintages recently, there is no hurry here. Ian Cook, FWC.
This has power and complexity and the right grade of reductive flair, overlaid on fresh yellow grapefruit and peach with flint and wet chalk, as well as attractive oak in the background. The palate has mouthwatering white-peach and lemon flavors with a deep draw of acidity that drives the finish in really deep, precise and fresh. Lip-smacking resolve here. Elegance, poise and whip-cracking freshness. Drink over the next six years. 98 points James Suckling.
A very impressive and seamless Chardonnay that is all class from start to finish. It bursts from the glass with lemon meringue, peach skin and floral aromas that are tight, compact and incredibly focussed, all supported by flinty, spicy oak complexity. The palate is equally explosive – bright and vibrant fruit that is embryonic with crystal clear fruit purity and lifted by savoury smoky, flinty leesy complexity. There is classic creamy chardonnay texture wound up tight by a bolt of Tasmanian acidity to provide the most complete Tolpuddle Chardonnay yet. Immense length tops it off beautifully – a clear candidate for this year’s top Chardonnay. 98 points. Angus Hughson - Winepilot
The filigree structure is a study in delicate balance between pure varietal character, site differentiation and winemaker vision. Lean and bony, its fruit is bound in a taut frame of citrus-tinged acidity, yet the finely drawn flavours show unusual intensity and persistence. Keep looking beyond the pastel sketch of white peach and lemon, and deep down there’s struck flint, a hint of seasoned oak, a lick of wet granite – nothing overt, nothing that doesn’t add to the sum of the parts. 97 points. David Sly - Decanter
