Port Phillip Estate Balnarring Chardonnay 2024
- 95
- $42
- Drink by: 2025-2039
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With each vintage, the role of vine age is becoming more apparent in the depth and intensity of Mornington Peninsula’s premier white grape variety. Balnarring Chardonnay sourced almost entirely from 27-year-old vines is one such example displaying an impressive level of purity of Chardonnay expression from a cool, maritime climate. Fermentation in French oak barriques (18% new) and maturation on lees for 11 months brings an added layer of flavour, beautifully integrated. The scent is quietly intoxicating in bright lemon, lime cordial, lemon zest, pear and nectarine. The palate is intense, tightly formed and upfront in fresh fruit appeal in crunchy white peach, nectarine, juicy red apple, Asian pear and spices. Combines the best of both worlds: drink now and enjoy that delectable immediacy of fruit and/or age and see it blossom further. . . and it will.
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.
