MMAD Vineyard Blewitt Springs Chenin Blanc 2023

The first words that come to mind? Heaven. Chenin Blanc is a variety that has so much to offer when it’s treated kindly from the ground to the glass. This clearly starts with incredible fruit, and although there is lots of tasty winemaking at play, the fruit sings through both the chorus and the verse. There’s plenty of funk here with flinty, smokey and cheesecloth notes of reduction. It works, with glossy lemon notes, a tickle of mixed spice, sea spray and flashes of crisp nori aligned. Some frankincense framed toasty oak is well played, too. On the palate, that classic Chenin swell of acidity adds to the fluidity and dance-like motion in the mouth. Let’s be clear, though, we are talking Nijinsky not Swan Lake. Impressive length, spine-tingling acidity and glossy crystalline fruit at the core of it all. The fine phenolics are detailed and layered, and the result is a creamy mouth feel rather than anything to do with chalk or graininess. What a wine. Up there with Australia’s best Chenin Blancs. This really is a beauty, with plenty of intelligence behind the aesthetics.