Tapanappa The Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2022
- 97
- $110
- Drink by: 2023-2033
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One of Australia’s most famous Chardonnays, though I fear it got a bit lost for some with the division of Petaluma and the emergence of Tapanappa. For me, this latest Tiers from the Tapanappa team must surely sit with the very best ever released, since the vineyard was planted back in 1979. A cool vintage, the fruit was pressed to tank and then to French oak barriques, 1/3rd new, for two months fermentation. The wine then stayed on lees until December 2022. A limpid lemon colour with flecks of green. It has the refinement of the 1.5 Metres Chardonnay, but an extra level of complexity. Notes of lemon, grapefruit especially, ginger, stonefruit, nuts and spices. Still fresh and with a minerally backing. Very long and surely with a life of a decade plus ahead, this is also utterly seamless and impeccably balanced.
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.
