Dalwhinnie MESA Chardonnay 2021

Before the first glass is broached, the first question here has to be: What is MESA? I looked it up, so you don’t have to. It’s Spanish for table. Spanish explorers of the American southwest used the word to describe the flat-topped hills they came across that looked like the tops of tables. The hills had steep sides worn down by erosion. Anyone who has visited the imposing 595m slopes of the Dalwhinnie vineyard at Moonambel will note a certain similarity. Dalwhinnie Chardonnay was – and is – the producer’s great white. A change of ownership to the Fogarty Wine Group in 2020 has seen the variety get a re-charge under chief winemaker, Julian Langworthy. The sense of power and substance remains, intertwined with a lovely elegance. It’s there from the first sniff of freshly zested lime, lemon curd, peach and cashew nut with a splash of quince paste. This is no lightweight. There are layers of fruit and oak to explore, buttery and textural in mouthfeel with a solid reserve of stone fruit at its heart. That citrussy fresh acid ping brings everything into focus. This wine gets your attention.

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