Ashton Hills Chardonnay 2025
- 94
- $50
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Fruit sourced from one grower and two own-managed vineyards in Piccadilly Valley. Wild fermented in barrel, aged in Burgundian oak (old and new) for nine months. 12.7% ABV. An excellent Chardonnay that takes you on a journey as it unfurls. There’s quite a bit of creamy oak on first look before a swirl of the glass unlocks cinnamon, toasted nuts and a plume of wood smoke. The fruit is tightly wound, unfurling at a glacial pace to reveal just-ripe white nectarine, tight lemon and flickers of green apple, before some delicate lees-derived shortcrust pastry and pithy white grapefruit emerge with air. Taut and racy at this young age, though the bones are clearly there. The palate follows in kind — coiled and nervy, with a core trying hard to break free. Lemon, white grapefruit, ground cinnamon, fine cedar. A tight line of chalky phenolics wraps around the palate like a corset, and a shot of citrus-drenched acid saturates the back palate. There’s genuine class on show, but its tightness and febrility require patience. When it opens up, it’s a brilliant expression. Precise, structural, complex — one to watch blossom with time in the cellar.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
