Barratt Wines Uley Vineyard Chardonnay 2022

An embodiment of summery, sunny Chardonnay in the glass or, as Oz Clarke famously put it when talking about Aussie wine in general – sunshine in a glass. Adelaide Hills does “sunny,” sophisticated Chardonnay well, especially in a cool vintage such as 2022. Yields were slightly down, too, that year and so there is an added degree of concentration at work so quality fruit shines. Bright, ripe white peach, nectarine, citrus against a background of nougat and almond meal. It’s a busy, young Chardonnay with plenty of energy and a world of fruit and winemaking to explore, including oak fermentation, 10 months oak maturation and a full malolactic fermentation (second fermentation). Tropical fruit salad notes join with jasmine, roasted nuts and nougat in a warm, mouth filling middle palate, textural and round. Plush and inviting, this wine captures the joyous fruit quality of the grape and region.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic