St Johns Wine The Terraces Optimus Chardonnay 2025
- 94
- $100
- Drink by: 2026-2036
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I’ve seen a few of these wines over the years, and to me this is perhaps the most refined and delicate of all of them. Whether it’s a new direction for the winemaking or a product of vintage, I’m not sure. But the wine has that elegance of modern Chardonnay, while still retaining the richness and complexity that comes with the original winemaking style, which revolves around wild fermentation and maturation with regular stirring in French oak, all designed to bring complexity and depth within a textured framework. The aromas lift with typical nectar and stone fruit-like subtleties, a little lemon rind edginess and some smooth, creamy cashew. The palate is neatly harnessed with fine acidity and a slightly savoury, minerally combination that carries through to the finish. It’s a neatly crafted wine.
Ray Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles were published in the early issues of national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s when he worked in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. From 1989 Ray wrote more than 3000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He currently writes a regular column for the special business publication Business News and is one of the main contributors to national wine platform Wine Pilot. In 2017 Ray co-authored The Way it Was – A History of The Early Days of the Margaret River Wine Industry and previously wrote Wine in the Blood: Australia’s Family Wine Estates, published in Mandarin and English. In 2011 Ray was awarded WA Wine Press Club Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the WA wine industry. His love of wine is as strong as his love of the blues and tasting the thousands of wines that cross his bench each year allows him to indulge in both.
