Woodlawn Park Vineyard Chardonnay 2023
- 93
- $75
Share
This opens with a pronounced leesy character—salted pastry dough leading into notes of honeysuckle, cheesecloth, and nutmeg. It holds firmly to its savoury frame before fruit begins to emerge: Meyer lemon, green apple skin, and white grapefruit. The palate walks that fine line between texture and tension with ease. Lemon juice, grapefruit, and tangy green apple skin cut through a creamy core, while those lees-derived pastry dough notes linger in the mouth perfume. There’s a gentle chalky grip to the sides and a preserved lemon acidity that coils everything toward a back-palate of good length. The fruit component remains coiled and tensile for now, placing the lees work firmly at the forefront. This will unfurl beautifully with time in bottle, but what’s here already is classy, chiselled, and finely wrought.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
