Bannockburn 2023 Chardonnay (6 Bottles) Geelong, Victoria

by Fine Wine Cellars

$388.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

Bannockburn’s Chardonnay has a track record most Victorian producers would give their eye teeth for. The quality and style can be traced back to the estate’s exceptional, organically farmed sites; the Olive Tree Hill Vineyard was planted in 1976 and abuts the S.R.H parcel, while the Winery Block was planted in 1981.

Both lie on volcanic soils over limestone clays with an average vine age of around 35 years. This year’s estate Chardonnay also includes fruit from Stuart Block (1997) and Kelly Lane Vineyard (2016). Due to the minuscule yields in 2023, the Bannockburn team could not make a Grigsby Chardonnay, so fruit from this exceptional, close-planted block was also included in this wine, with all that entails.

As is the norm, the fruit was pressed as whole bunches and wild fermented in a mixture of French hogsheads and puncheons (20% new). This year, 70% of the blend went through malolactic conversion, and the wine spent 10 months maturing on lees with no stirring. Campbell Mattinson’s note below is spot on―this is a vivid, full-throttle, substantive Chardonnay, saturated in flavour with crystalline cut, fleshy richness and incredible length. A stone-cold stunner.

“There’s ample flavour and texture here but the length of this wine is wow. It tastes of grilled peaches, green pineapple, straw, herbs and cedarwood. There’s real flavour here, and a creaminess to the texture, but there’s a real cut to the wine as well. It arguably needs a bit of time to soften.

It thrusts its way through the finish, drawing flavour along with it. In 15 year’s time people will be pulling well-cleared bottles of this out and marvelling at how youthful it seems.” 94+ points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

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Geelong

“Bannockburn has been a giant of the Geelong region for roughly four decades, but over the past few years it has got its house back in the best of order and has put out a stunning array of wines. It’s full steam ahead at Bannockburn again.” Campbell Mattinson, Wine Companion Top 100 Wineries 2023

At Bannockburn terroir is taken very seriously with a site specific and Burgundian/Rhône like approach to vineyard management but without discounting quality for the sake of personality. Winemaker Matt Holmes has taken on the principles of making wines with great diligence and passion; orchestrating organic practice, a belief in dry grown viticulture, vine age and close planting. In the winery they favour wild ferment, use of whole bunches, extended maceration times, extended lees contact and fastidious barrel selection processes to make wines that are exciting, unique and clearly identifiable as ‘Bannockburn’.

Bannockburn Vineyards established by Stuart Hooper in 1974, is situated outside the township of Bannockburn, Victoria. Over the past 4 decades Bannockburn has achieved a reputation for handcrafting wines that are individual, complex and elegant. Wines which genuinely reflect the flavours of highly regarded vineyards; wines which are produced with a purist, uncompromising approach to winemaking.

All Bannockburn wines are made from fruit grown on our long-established estate in the Geelong wine region. The meticulously tended vineyards and the “hands-off” approach by winemaker Matt Holmes result in wines that are exciting, complex and uniquely Bannockburn.

Matt Holmes commenced making the wines at Bannockburn Vineyards in 2015. He sees his role as a servant to the vineyard, growing season and fruit to produce wines representative of our style and site. Above all, gentle inputs and minimal additions are his goal. In his words, “Well-nourished vines grown in a suitable spot, picked on the right day, transcribed as wine.”

Previously, Matt had been making wine in the Okanagan wine region of British Columbia, Canada. During these 10 years he also gained a broad range of experience working additional vintages in the U.S., France, Italy, New Zealand as well as Australia.

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