Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown Thorley Chardonnay Beechworth 2022

What a treat this wine is. First up, the making: “30% new oak. Pressed as crushed clusters. Partial solids wild ferment, then full mlf in a mix of puncheon and barrique. 30% new oak. Ten months in oak with monthly stirring, then five months in tank for fine lees tightening before bottling”.  A good punch of resin, cedar and slightly rubbery reduction at the fore, before a delicious unfurling of flint, clotted cream, apple crumble, a saline note with air, and some nectarine flesh filling it out. Good balance to the palate, which is textural and fulsome. Green apple, pastry dough, toasty cedar, and nectarine sit within a pillowy texture cut by assertive, tight chalky phenolics and waves of cleansing acidity to a very long finish. There’s a journey to this wine as it unfurls and shape shifts from first smell to final taste. These guys are on fire with Chardonnay. Complex, architectural, intense and ageworthy. A big yes from me.