Stella Bella Margaret River Chardonnay 2022
- 95
- $42
- Drink by: 2023-2032
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Winemakers take note. The current trend to build middle-palate texture in Chardonnay should not come at the expense of bright fruit intensity. Here, we see what is possible when texture and fruit combine, when one doesn’t rule the other, when both co-exist brilliantly in the glass. Top fruit in a top year like 2022 helps of course, but the winemaker’s intention remains clear throughout. The fruit sings in aroma and flavour concentration: fresh cut nectarine, white peach combine with a lemon sorbet zestiness, grapefruit pith, nougat and cashew. Mouth-filling and plush, it opens up across the middle palate, aided by some discreet oak, but never loses control or nuance. It remains nicely trimmed at all times by Marg’s lively cool climate acidity. Simply gorgeous.
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.
