Chardonnay Season Part 5
Barry Weinman: 28th April 2025
The tasting panel behind Weinman on Wine tastes blind at every opportunity to ensure that preconceived ideas of quality and value do not influence the tasting results.
The reality is that most wine writers do not taste blind. Indeed, some publications insist that their writers do not taste blind.
So the reviewer sits down with a bottle of Penfolds Grange for example, and writes the review knowing what the wine is. By the same token, if reviewing a $10 bottle of wine, they know full well that it is a cheap wine.
So it is only natural that biases creep in.
The benefit of reviewing wines blinded is that my review is written and points lodged before I know the identity.
This is the final article in the 2025 Chardonnay Season series and reviews some of the other wines that have starred in recent masked line ups.
Reviewed
Juniper Estate – Cornerstone – Wilyabrup Vineyard – Chardonnay – 2023. This is a very impactful wine that has had royal treatment in the winery. Quality oak (228l barrels, 35% new) and plenty of lees characters combine with ripe peachy fruit which is pineapple tinged. Impressive, the lemony acid is the hero here, cutting through the richness and making for a superb wine. It is remarkable that a wine with only 12.5% alcohol can have this much flavour. 12.5% alc, 95pts – $65.
Fermoy – Estate Reserve – Chardonnay – 2024. This is very, very good. But in a different style than we typically see from Margeret River. Fine, elegant and restrained, but there is subtle intensity to the fruit that is quite outstanding. Seamless, the oak adds texture and grip, without impacting on the line and length of the palate. Lemon pith and hints of cinnamon build on the close. A modern style and a lovely wine. 95pts.
Grosset – Piccadilly – Chardonnay – 2023. An outstanding wine that just gets better and better the longer it sits in the mouth. The intensity, depth and power of the fruit is a revelation. I am sure that there is high-quality oak packed in there somewhere, but it does nothing to impede the flow of the fruit in any way. A superb wine which is great drinking now, and will age for at least 5 years with ease. 12.7% alc – 95pts.
Evans & Tate – Redbrook Estate – Chardonnay – 2022. Another excellent wine. This is a touch more obvious than some but lacks for nothing in comparison. Middle of the road and oozing goodness. A wine that is already providing drinking pleasure. 93pts.
Evans & Tate – Redbrook Reserve – Chardonnay – 2022. Very pale colour. This is quite extraordinary. How a wine that is subtle and supple can, at the same time, be this powerful and intense defies logic. There is a seemingly never-ending cascade of flavours and textures, yet there are no obvious fruit characters which dominate. Lemony acidity carries a finish that has excellent length and persistence. Should be good value, relatively speaking. 12.5% alc – 96pts.