Savitas Wines Álainn Fion Chardonnay 2018

To put this and other wines made by Matt O’Leary under the Savitas Wines umbrella into perspective, we need to look to his long career as winemaker at Wolf Blass. It’s pretty safe to say it laid the basis of his winemaking, during which he won award after award for his chardonnay, including World’s Best Chardonnay at the Hong Kong International Wine Challenge. Not something to sniff at.

So, back to Álainn Fion . . . The winemaker starts with a quality base, fruit from the Piccadilly Valley sub-region of the Adelaide Hills. He then proceeds to let said quality express itself beautifully, deliciously in the glass. This is a multi-layered wine, fully integrated but the more you taste the more layers are revealed: of white peach, nectarine and cumquat, then a splash of citrus brightens and lifts before you enter into a textural beauty which explores gentle spice and soft, underlying oak. It’s tied together firmly by bright, clean acidity that pops and smacks the lips. I’m a fan. And Álainn Fion? It’s Gaelic for “beautiful wine.” Fitting.

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