Penfolds, Private Release Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills

What more do you want from a Chardonnay? Oak, melon, honey layer with fruit flavours and all the good stuff. Still refreshing after 12 years. Love it!

Won our tasting night!

Flinty, matchstick, big grapefruit, savoury flavours. Quite a mouthful of wine, but very well made. Impressively this feels glacial in its aging process. I couldn’t say it’s improved because it was excellent when I tasted at cellar door 10 years ago, but this remains a special wine.

Struck match initially on the nose, but opened up to soft citrus and oak, and at times some butter menthol. Sweet, clean long tropical lines extending to pineapple as it opened up. Another couple of years left in them for our remaining 4 bottles. A favourite.

Very intense nose with flinty struck match notes. Creamy peach, lemon rind, grapefruit body with a hint vanilla oak notes. Mineral finish. A very yummy drink.

Spectator Winemaker's Dinner with Penfolds' chief winemaker Peter Gago - 108 Brasserie, London. Limited note taking. Vanilla core, very tight. White cherries with hint of aromatics and a touch of green peppers. Not ready in my view for at least another couple of years but with great potential and a longer window than the noted (and markedly contrasting style) 2008 Yattarna. Unmarked but currently c.91pts with probably 93 potential when opens out. Drink 2017-2022?+

Plenty of matchstick sulphur coupled with white peach, fig and toast. I wrote ‘Aussie like’ but with a French feel. Quite sophisticated juice.

Stylish young Adelaide Hills chardonnay. Quite tight still, with the (very good) French oak playing quite a role. Best 2015- 13% alcohol.

James Halliday top regional Chardonnay tasting (Prince Wine Store - Bank Street) : A funky nose of struck match and toasty oak with a broad, silky palette that has an oily texture and is full of savoury pickling spices and rich fruit. Good wine, but expensive.

Strong vanilla notes, slightly reductive (sulphur). The oak is again very prominent in the palate, but the fruit quality is good and should be powerful enough to accommodate the oak. Good acid spine, and great length. Will need time to integrate. Oak too strong for my liking.

2012 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Exhibitor's Tasting (Olympic Park, Homebush) : Gold medal. {screwcap} Youthful; lots of nutty oak, melon/grapefruit and butter aromas. Very intense. Malolactic is alive and kicking here! It’s dry, medium-bodied, with plenty of leesy/barrel-ferment characters concealing unobtrusive structure; medium acid and integrated alcohol. Softly oaky on the medium-long finish. Pretty appealing wine which should drink very well in the shorter term, who knows after that.