Barratt Chardonnay 2022
- 91
- $42
- Drink by: 2023-2028
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From the Uley Vineyard, in the Piccadilly Valley, which was planted 39 years prior to this vintage, the grapes were whole bunch pressed into tanks for five days to settle before transfer to French oak barriques, 30% new, for fermentation with wild yeasts and 100% malo, 11 months maturing in oak. Pale green/gold, this is quite spicy with notes of nutmeg and cinnamon from oak, well integrated but this is an on-going process. Seamless with an appealing texture, there is good length here. With peaches, stonefruit and melon notes, drink and enjoy at any stage over the next three to five years, but if you do give it another 12 months for the oak to fully meld, you will not regret it.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
