Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5m Chardonnay 2025
- 95
- $90
- Drink by: 2026-2038
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Close planted Chardonnay – 1.5 metre row spacing – came in pretty handy during the 2025 vintage which was South Australia’s warmest, driest and earliest vintage on record. The winemaker believes close spacing provides “earlier-ripening, fuller flavoured Chardonnay,” something that translated into a firm, tight, tense package of wine in ’25 delivering a sunny, bright intensity of flavour. It seems to be in building mode at this early stage, still forming, but already you can see the emergence of a rounder, more textural and open flavoured Chardonnay than the ’24 at the same early level. Quince, citrus scents and flavours abound against a background of stone fruit, hazelnut and honeysuckle aromatics. Very much a focused Chardonnay, nicely spiced and lemony crisp throughout, finishing on a lemon tart zesty note. It’s quite a sustained tangy close to a Chardonnay of class. It’s going to need a little more time if you can give it, and don’t over chill to serve.
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.
