Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay 2022

Quite the chameleon, this Yarra Valley Chardonnay isn’t about to lay everything out in front of the drinker. This little beauty does a slow reveal, a wine that forces you to keep returning to the glass to explore more. And you’ve gotta love that. It’s quiet to start – and here’s a warning not to overchill – but slowly aromas surface. It’s a youngster, it shows, as citrus, white peach, almond and light spices emerge. It’s reserved more than in name, tightly formed with layers and flavours still evolving, but the palate alerts you to the depths yet to be fully explored, the concentration of summer fruits, quince, citrus and toasted almond and vanilla. There’s real substance and weight here, and what poise. This is a keeper.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

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.

Wine writer and critic