Double Oaks Macedon Ranges Chardonnay 2020

You get the strong impression that the people behind Double Oaks Estate – which is also a truffle plantation – embrace the wild and savoury. The 2020 chardonnay easily falls into that category with its bitter almond, nettle, grassy, green melon and stone fruits aromas. The general rule that the longer the tasting note, the more complex the wine, holds true here. With this wine, I wrote a lot of words. The layer of leesy characters from six months ageing sur lie (on fine lees) of nutty nougatine and almond meal, is important to this wine. It brings that added degree of complexity joining citrus, stone fruits and a savoury preserved lemon. Bright acidity keeps everything running clean to the finish. More-ish.

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