Vasse Felix Chardonnay 2020
- 95
- $44
- Drink by: 2022-2032
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This may well be the best Vasse Felix chardonnay yet, setting aside Heytesbury of course. This was an outstanding early vintage in Margaret River, with low yields and fantastic quality. It was 100% barrel fermented using only indigenous yeasts with full solids impact in the wine. It was matured in French oak for 10 months, followed by another 7 months harmonising on lees in tank before bottling. Winemaker Virginia Willcock sources from a number of vineyard sites, mostly with the Gingin clone although this year about 22% Bernard clone was added. There’s a chalky bony character here which really gives the wine definition. At the same time a rich textural concentration emerges through the palate with that crisp minerally acid sustaining a prolonged finish. A super example of this wine that sits just below the Heytesbury. There is quite a deal of ageing potential here.
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.
