Scarborough Keepers of the Flame Chardonnay 2023

Deep flint and curry leaf reduction mark the opening, followed by baked apple with cinnamon, subtle woodsmoke, butter, grilled peach, vanilla bean and preserved lemon. Some butter pastry and toast notes with air. It’s deep set and powerfully complex. The palate is full bodied and textural but masterfully cut by grippy phenolics and firm fruit power. Baked apple, pastry dough, cinnamon, nectarine, and preserved lemon are buoyed by a pithy grapefruit lift. The aforementioned phenolics hold sway through the finish, acting as a frame for a bite of preserved lemon and buttered toast to carry through to long length. Toast notes lingering in the mouth perfume. There’s power, there’s complexity, there’s drive. This is a great release.