Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2023
- 97
- $220
- Drink by: 2025-2035
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The fruit for this very fine Yattarna, a standout for the vintage, comes from Tumbarumba, Adelaide Hills and Tasmania. The wine spent eight months in French oak barriques, 60% of which were new, the remaining 40% just one year in age. The colour offers hints of straw and there is perhaps more oak evident at this early stage than we sometimes see with Yattarna, but it is deftly handled and integration is proceeding apace. There is a spiciness already apparent, and notes of stone fruits, citrus and peaches, along with fresh oystershells and limes. The wine has that exemplary Yattarna refinement. On the palate, those alluring lemon and peach notes are even more to the fore, while the oak fades to a minor supporting role. The wine has focus, serious length and is already exhibiting the first hints of the complexity which will surely continue to emerge. A ten year proposition, there is plenty of room for this wine to improve even further. This might not be a great Yattarna, but it is an extremely good one.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
