Savitas Wines Álainn Fion Chardonnay 2019

Is it a reflection of the 2019 vintage in the Adelaide Hills or a winemaker’s choice to present a chardonnay with 11.5% alcohol? It’s a question I ask myself as I taste the Álainn Fion 2019 chardonnay, a wine in contrast to its older sibling, the 2018, which weighed in at 13% alcohol. Whatever the reason, the 2019 vintage is a different interpretation. A young, delicate chardonnay still working on its personality, it is yet to be released. Expect a firm and distinctive long line and length to this wine, racy acidity is the key. Within that framework there is plenty of life bustling way, fruit and oak – the latter quite discreet – working through their relationship. Familiar lemon and grapefruit flavours are joined by slightly less familiar ginger biscuit, roasted almond and spice notes. My immediate thought is of further ageing for this wine, even after its release. There is a core of compact aromas and flavours worth waiting for.

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