Coldstream Hills Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2020

The team at Coldstream Hills under winemaker, Andrew Fleming, source grapes from across the Yarra Valley to make this delicious, and excellent value, Chardy. They see citrus flavours, ‘with mineral slate notes and length’ coming from the Upper Yarra, while the vineyards in the Lower Yarra provide fruit which is ‘fleshier in style with attractive white peach and quince characters’. For them, the blend works. And it really does. The wine is barrel fermented, before ageing in French oak barriques, puncheons and vats for up to nine months, prior to blending and bottling, with 30% of the oak new.

A green gold colour. The aromas flood out of the glass as soon as the wine is poured – melon, stonefruit, peach, nuts, a hint of lemon meringue and a gentle nudge of oak. It is finely balanced and has serious persistence, accompanied by underlying acidity. There is a most appealing creamy texture. This is very good now, but expect it to step up even further over the next five to six years. This exceeds what we might have expected from the vintage, but you could say that about all of the 2020 Chardonnay vintage from Coldstream Hills.