2019 Tolpuddle Chardonnay

Tasted blind. Fermented and aged for 9 months in French oak. Butter, lemon, apple, toffee. Bold oak that has great fruit balance. Integrated, high acid. Long, stately, refined. Has something classic about it, but it's too precise to be Burgundy. Cool Australia? (RH)

The 2019 Chardonnay is the very image of Tasmanian Chardonnay—powerful fruit is wrapped around a glass core of acidity and shaped by flowing phenolics in the mouth. This is a muscular wine of pure form and has finely chiseled layers of stone fruit, brine and the beginnings of almond meal soaked in brine. There is also curry leaf, some mustard seed, freshly grated nutmeg and even some Greek yogurt.

Wildfires. No Pinot bottled as Tolpuddle in 2019. Steely nose with lots of drive. Very juicy but a little bit simpler than the 2018. And it finishes a bit suddenly. (JR)