Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2025

Heady spring scents gather in white florals, honeysuckle, citrus lemon and grapefruit. There’s no letting go of that spring fresh quality and energy as the wine hits the palate. Lightly textural, it brings a lemon citrus crystalline intensity together with cut apple and lifted white florals. No noticeable oak to speak of, though it is there – eight months in French barriques (25% new) – but what is on show and inviting is the wine’s cool minerality and fineness. Long, clean, delicate on the finish. Über cool climate features from three regions in three different states: Adelaide Hills, Tumbarumba, Tasmania. The result is super elegant.

by Lisa Cardelli

A blend of fruit grown in the cool-climate regions of Adelaide Hills, Tasmania and Tumbarumba, from a cool vintage. Reflecting its provenance and the vintage, it indeed opens with restraint, offering mostly leesy notes of margarine and vanilla slice. It then unfolds into salty pink grapefruit, lemongrass, white orchid, yellow apple and a delicately fragrant note of Nashi pear. The acidity initially feels almost phenolic before becoming nervier and more focused, evoking fresh citrus with a saline edge. The finish is restrained in length, yet tense and salivating. 2026 – 2036. 93 Points

by Tom Kline

Multi-regional Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills, Tasmania and Tumbarumba; eight months in French oak barriques (23% new). Understated aromas of pear, subtle brown spice, delicate peach skin and a flicker of lemongrass, with allusions of green mango. Some air sees a subtle emergence of nougat and spicy cedar, adding savoury complexity. It’s bright and supple in the mouth with the cedar spice sitting a little more forward while not interfering negatively. Pear, red apple, lemon and nectarine drive the fruit profile while a slightly brine-like edge adds a saline element. There’s some toastiness around the edges, taking more of the limelight through a finish of solid length helped along by gentle but persistent acidity. A lovely fresh Chardonnay balancing the line between drinkability and complexity. 2026 – 2036. 92 Points

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