2012 Giaconda Estate Vineyard Chardonnay

Textbook Giaconda.

Giaconda’s Estate Vineyard Chardonnay is planted on the cooler south-facing exposure. The wine is fully barrel fermented with approximately 30% new French oak and allowed to go through malolactic fermentation, which adds more complexity and structure. This wine is aged in barrel for 22 months, deep underground in Giaconda’s granite maturation cave.

‘A Chardonnay of superb depth, persistence and character that transcends the norm clearly demonstrating why it’s considered by many as one of the country’s best.’

Brilliant straw colour with a very pale straw watery hue. The nose shows excellent intensity with fleshy white peach and riper pear aromas intermixed with cashew overlaid by some biscuity oak, nougat, light honeycomb and spice. Rich mouthfilling flavours of ripe peach are interlaced with honeycomb, cashew and nougat followed by nuances of roasted almond, lees and spicy biscuity oak. Superb balance between the textural aspects and acid structure of the wine. Creamy mouthfeel with long aftertaste of ripe peach, creamy cashew, honeycomb, biscuity oak and spice with some roasted almond like characters right at the end.
Limited Stocks.
Cellar 5-6 years (2019-2020).
Alc 13.5%

Other Reviews....
Gleaming green-gold; the bouquet has the hallmark edge of struck flint, adding immeasurably to its complexity, but also laying the way for the palate to follow; here is a chardonnay that stands apart and aloof from all other chardonnays in Australia; its power is as formidable, and as hard to explain as, a black hole in space. It just is. Talking about its balance is far easier, for there is an inexorable logic about the way the fruit, oak and acid are so seamlessly married to each other. Drink by 2025.
98 points
James Halliday - Australian Wine Companion