Howard Park Chardonnay 2019
- 95
- $58
- Drink by: 2021 - 2028
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This fruit comes from the excellent Allingham vineyard, south of Margaret Rivet town around Karridale. It is an excellent chardonnay region as the fine, yet super intense fruit can be shaped effortlessly into chardonnays of great style and class. There is a real hands-on approach here from the handpicking in the vineyard through to the hand sorting, whole bunch pressing and natural fermentation. The oak treatment is excellent providing a delicate balance to support the palate through to its long finish.
This vintage presented challenges with some bird issues and early rains but those that managed it well achieved whites of outstanding quality. The nose is loaded with a mix of cashews and cream, creme brulee, with an oak, oatmeal and lemon curd thing happening. The palate is rich with a distinctive minerality cutting deep and long within the fruit mix of nougat and light fig.
Ray Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles were published in the early issues of national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s when he worked in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. From 1989 Ray wrote more than 3000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He currently writes a regular column for the special business publication Business News and is one of the main contributors to national wine platform Wine Pilot. In 2017 Ray co-authored The Way it Was – A History of The Early Days of the Margaret River Wine Industry and previously wrote Wine in the Blood: Australia’s Family Wine Estates, published in Mandarin and English. In 2011 Ray was awarded WA Wine Press Club Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the WA wine industry. His love of wine is as strong as his love of the blues and tasting the thousands of wines that cross his bench each year allows him to indulge in both.
