Ashton Hills Reserve Chardonnay 2025
- 95
- $80
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A barrel selection of available Chardonnay parcels. Handpicked from the Bowhouse and Woods Hill Vineyards. Wild fermented in barrel, matured in new and seasoned Burgundian oak for nine months. White grapefruit and cinnamon spice lead, with fine cedar quick to follow. Like the estate Chardonnay, this is tightly wound and crystalline on first look, with a great deal clearly held in reserve. A good swirl reveals cashew cream, white florals, white nectarine and saline oyster shell minerality, along with a gentle underlay of flinty reduction adding further complexity. Exciting in its prettiness, purity and power. There’s a great balance of energetic tension and creamy texture on the palate, the wine’s power funnelled through architectural structure — tight phenolics and rolling waves of saline acidity pulling it all to vivid length. Balance, power, purity, complexity, age-worthiness. Ashton Hills are in the zone right now.
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.
