Carlei Green Vineyards Cuvée Stephen Thomson Chardonnay 2016

The “green” in Sergio Carlei’s choice of brand name, Green Vineyards, is reference to his strong belief in the viability of ‘green’ viticulture, that is, organic and biodynamic grape growing. He produces wines generally devoid of too much winemaking artefact. It’s all about the fruit. And he likes bottle ageing before release, hence, his 2016 chardonnay comes with a degree of development. As a six-year-old, though, it’s looking pretty smart with the structure to keep going for a little while longer. Ripe tropical fruits – melon, peach, nectarine – hold forth with some citrus, baked apple and almond mealiness in play. It’s not a shouter, it’s quite demure, working to its own tune which is about well-composed, sunny fruit with flint and oyster-shell flavours matched to an enduring texture. Could easily be over-looked by louder wines, but retains a presence in the glass.

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