Oakridge 864 Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2020

A one-word review would be ‘purity’. A storm of aromatics sweeps up from the glass. Concentrated peach purée, sliced nectarine, yellow tomato, almond skin, apricot yoghurt, multigrain toast. There’s a hint of that reductive match-y smokiness but that’s all it is; a whisper. There’s a savoury, spicy cashew focus at the forefront which bleeds into apricot yoghurt and  pure orchard juice. The texture spreads, not leaving any part of the palate out. Grapefruit pith and banana skin are tart and chalky on the back palate, framing all that mid palate fruit nicely. The core of fruit is rather tight, telling me it has some years to go until fruition. I would score this higher but there are characteristics, that savoury element and fresh acid especially, that need a bit of time to settle down. In five years I would imagine it’s going to be closer to that hen’s tooth score 100. At the moment it is supremely delicious, quite drinkable and…

Morgan Dunn

Morgan Dunn was a Melbourne based sommelier with over 10 years of experience. He was one of our very first Winepilots and wrote a regular wine column for The Australian and contributed to various publications including Noble Rot. In 2017 he was named 'Emerging Wine Writer of the Year' at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Awards as well as receiving the Wine Communicators of Australia award for 'Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column'. He spoke Japanese and was planning to write a book on Tokyo wine bars and wine culture in Japan. In his spare time Morgan played piano, enjoyed snowboarding and went to Escape Rooms with his twin brother. He is deeply missed by many.