La Kooki Boya Chardonnay 2021
- 96
- $65
- Drink by: 2023-2031
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At first glance, it’s reminiscent of a textbook Margaret River Chardonnay: a medley of vanilla, fresh cream, melted butter, raw nuts, Golden Queen peach and pineapple. As expected, the palate is full and round with a slightly bitter edge like biting in that yellow-fleshed peach too close to its stone. The core is ultra-mineral. In fact, the name could not be more appropriate: Boya means stones in Noongar, the language spoken by the Wadandi people from the Southwest part of WA. The palate closes with a malic-like acidity of a crunchy green apple. Well balanced and showing its elegant, mineral touch once closing the door behind. I still can’t believe that they’ve added granite stones to the barrels during fermentation with impressive balance and integration of all the parts.
Lisa Cardelli is an Italian-born wine professional who has been based in Melbourne since 2010. She worked as a sommelier in some of the city’s leading fine-dining restaurants for over ten years before leaving hospitality to become a wine sales representative. Lisa is now a journalist for Il Globo, the newspaper for Italians in Australia and around the world, where she also curates her own wine column. She continues to write about wine for both local and international publications and is on track to become one of the few prolific bilingual wine writers in Australia. A certified WSET Educator, she teaches at various venues across Melbourne. She also judges at local wine shows and for the prestigious Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards. Lisa was the recipient of the 2022 Wine Communicators of Australia award for Best Published Feature Article, a finalist for the same award in 2024, the recipient of the 2022 Sydney Royal Wine Professional Development Scholarship sponsored by the Len Evans Foundation, and one of twelve carefully selected Len Evans Scholars in 2024.
