February 2023
SHAW + SMITH
Chardonnay Lenswood Vineyard 2021
- 96 points -
Fermented wild in new and used 500L puncheons; matured for 10 months with the occasional stir. Among the country's varietal exemplars. Transparent and tensile with an additional nuance of flavour, vibrato and mineral cohesion etched into the firmament of complexity each year. White peach, toasted hazelnut, jasmine and nougatine teem long. The oak, nestled beautifully, serves as a framing backdrop rather than the centrepiece. A wine of precision, intense flavours and immense class.
About James Halliday (Australian Wine Companion)
Respected wine critic and vigneron James Halliday has a career that spans over 40 years, but he is most widely known for his witty and informative writing about wine.
As one of the founders of Brokenwood in the Lower Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, and thereafter founder of Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, James is an unmatched authority on every aspect of the wine industry, from the planting and pruning of vines through to the creation and marketing of the finished product. His winemaking has led him to sojourns in Bordeaux and Burgundy, and he is constantly in demand as a wine judge in Australia and overseas.
James has contributed to more than 56 books on wine since he began writing in 1979. His books have been translated into Japanese, French, German, Danish and Icelandic, and have been published in the UK, the US and Australia. He is also the author of James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia and The Australian Wine Encyclopedia.