Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay 2025

Superlative right now and, what’s more, promises so much over the coming years. You’ve gotta love a Chardonnay with those qualities already on board at just one year of age. The scent captivates in grapefruit and citrus, preserved lemon, saline notes, almond cream and spice. Vibrant, intense and layered in flavour, M3 moves fast, elevated by a crunchy acidity with an almost linear drive and a solid core of tantalising lemony citrus in the engine room. There is a lovely detail and poise here right now to explore with a warm almond mealiness, grapefruit pith, citrus, nectarine, woodsy spice and light savoury notes coming on stream on a developing creamy texture. Reveals a deeper side which can only build from here with more time in bottle. It’s built to last. M3 combines the best qualities of 21st Century Australian Chardonnay.

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