Ashton Hills Chardonnay 2025

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.