Penfolds Chardonnay Reserve Bin 13A

Almost too clean for my taste. Crisp apple, citrus zest, merest waft of vanilla and oak. Steely mineral element. All seems fully integrated and on its plateau - but can't see where any improvement is going to come from. Expensive 90 pointer!!

Terroir-istes International - Australia-South Australia (Overgaauw Wine Estate) : Mid-yellow with a clean, correct nose, focussed. Aromas of vanilla, sweet spice, light oak, touch pineapple, even lime. the palate has a rich texture balanced well with a direct almost strident acidity, peach slices and oatmeal nuances underneath keeping the wine interesting. Excellent length with good integration. Given the price, perhaps more needed?

A good wine. Oak noticeably there but welll integrated. Complex. Lemon, apple, stone fruit. Decent length. Seems ready to go. Not entirely sure about the pricetag. A pleasure nonetheless.

Pale straw colour. complex nose with toasty citrus character. Initially mainly minerally citrus fruit but the palate became more complex as it warmed with apple and white peach flavours developing. Good balance with plenty of citrus acidity at this stage. Well-judged, soft vanillic oak - enough but not dominating. The wine is still young with 10-15 years ahead of it. I find it difficult to judge its future development in its current youthful state but the track record of this …

Crisp, spritely flavors of white peach and apples. Very pure almost minerally flavors. No doubt it will evolve from here and likely improve in score and complexity.

Treasury Wine Estate Premium Wine Expo (Prince Sydney, 40 Hansard Street) : slight funky, citrus fruit, lemon notes, cheesy and leesy…juicy and fresh, slight lemon fruit, a little muted, medium and front of mouth burr, touch of buttery malolactic. Meh.

TWE Portfolio Tasting (Prince Wine Store, Sydney) : Hay, straw, oak and pear. Palate has good acidity to keep the wine fresh but the fruit is too restrained given the oak profile at this time. Will definitely need a few years at least before approaching this.

Check-up on Australia with Tim Wildman, MW (Adelaide/Barossa) : Medium yellow. Discrete nose of gun flint, sulfuric notes with greener fruit, very delicate and elegant, some sea shells. Palate has solid acidity, followed by medium body, Pugliny-Montrachet style. Nice. This apparently wins gold medals in Aussie wine shows consistently. 94+

Peter Bourne GWT Tasitng Chardonnay (8 Danks street, Sydney) : On the nose toasted nuts, butter, cream, almost biscuit, stone fruits, plentiful spice. In the mouth the wine has obvious spice flavours and is juicy, after the nose it's all quite closed and the palate is, unsurprisingly, grippy. Feels like it needs time but the lack of fruit coming through is bit of a worry.

toasty nose, coffee, smells of expensive oak ageing intially very dry, lemony and tangy and then it gradually becomes richer and rounder and the oak comes through with some nuttiness. Oak very well integrated. Lots of power and a very long finish. This is sort of midway in style between those modern skinny Aus Chards and the classic oaky style. I like it.

Expressive nose, bold, slightly awkward, very creamy, toffee notes, ripe stone fruit, glossy. On the palate good acidity, very round and buttery, good persistence, well balanced with a slight mineral character. 88-89+

Quite oak dominated on the nsoe as you'd expect, nice orchard fruits and blossom also; cool and fresh palate with lovely texture, very nice.