Southern Light Vineyards Seven Slopes of Rising Yarra Chardonnay Nillumbik 2024
- 96
- $90
- Drink by: 2026-2034
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The team behind those wonderful Ghostgum wines from the Mornington Peninsula have now released a series of single vineyard wines from the Yarra Valley from the 2024 vintage. They are seriously impressive and definitely worth your attention. This cracking Chardonnay came from two blocks in the Seven Slopes of Rising Vineyard in the Yarra, different clones and different aspects. Both batches were kept separate. The grapes were whole bunch pressed to French oak barrels, some 300-litres and some 500-litres, with 35% of them new. Wild yeast fermentation was followed by a year maturing on lees. This, like all wines in the range, was bottled under an agglomerate cork. Deep lemon in colour, this is beautifully structured. We have notes of melons, grilled cashews, peaches, ginger, nectarines, stone fruits and florals. Exquisitely balanced, it really does have such a stunning nose and this continues on the palate. There are notes of spicy/cinnamon oak evident. A wine which dances on the palate and has extraordinary length, it runs the tightrope of power and elegance. A line of fine acidity helps tie things together. Enjoy this over the next eight years.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
