Shaw + Smith Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay 2023

The hallmark of all three new Single Vineyard releases is their youth and their promise yet to be fully revealed. The Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay possibly reveals this feature the most. The first day after opening it remained taut and a little closed with a strong line of acidity featuring. It called out for a decant. The second day, it started to loosen up and then there were some lovely scents and flavours emerging in summer stone fruits, citrus, white peach, melon and apple with a dash of dried herbs. From that point of view, it looks very much like a reflection of its vintage which was the wettest and the coldest of three successive La Niña years. Acidity remains vital, vibrant and a real feature, chalky and dry, and with that level of acidity this is a wine very much in waiting with a good life ahead of it for 10 years or more. And, with what is some mighty promising complexity coming on stream, it’s going to be worth the extra time and care you give it.

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