Review Detail

The fruit for the 2011 Estate was sourced from Toolangi’s Dixon Creek vineyard, the wine saw 10 months in French Oak, of which 40% was new. The oak influence makes it’s presence felt on the nose with gun flint inputs, and on the palate with subtle wood spice. The wine was made by David Bicknell, one of the star’s of Yarra Valley Chardonnay. There has been, and continues to be a large amount written about the 2011 vintage, it was a tough one for red’s, but the Chardonnay’s continue to be superb, especially from the Yarra Valley.

The wine is a light yellow in the glass, the nose shows flinty oak, nectarine, fig with some richer melon somewhere in the background. The palate is fleshier than i thought given the vintage, however there is still a crystalline grapefruit inspired acidity that provides a base from which riper white peach exerts itself, and is then reigned back by attractive and textural spice. The finish is long and centred by driving acidity alongside wood spice and tightly bound stone fruits.