2024 Bannockburn Grigsby Chardonnay

Bannockburn Vineyards was founded in 1974 by Stuart Hooper, who envisioned producing Australian wines to rival the world’s best. Situated in the Moorabool Valley near Geelong, the estate spans 26 vineyard blocks across diverse soils of volcanic debris, ancient seabeds, and limestone. Now among the oldest plantings in the region, Bannockburn is celebrated for its close-planted Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and other varieties, grown with organic principles and crafted with minimal intervention to reflect purity of site. Remaining family-owned, the estate continues to balance heritage, sustainability, and innovation, producing wines of depth, character, and enduring quality.

The 2024 Grigsby Chardonnay comes from Bannockburn’s close-planted, certified organic block, established in 2007 and named in honour of long-serving viticulturist Lucas Grigsby. Grafted to Bernard 76 in 2019, the 0.87-acre site is densely planted (8,333 vines/ha) on dark clay over weathered basalt and limestone, producing fruit of concentration and precision.
Hand-picked parcels were whole-bunch pressed, settled overnight, and fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak hogsheads, around 25% new. Natural malolactic fermentation followed, with the wine resting on lees, unstirred, for 10 months before blending and bottling. The result is a Chardonnay of depth and tension, marrying layered fruit with mineral drive and subtle oak complexity.
Alc. 13%

Other Reviews....
Grigsby Chardonnay is grown on the estate’s close-planted (8333 vines per hectare), certified organic vineyard. It’s named after Lucas Grimsby, who has worked in the vineyards at Bannockburn since 1987.
Quite a lot of colour to this wine and powerful fruit up-front, though the finish is then as restrained as it is long. This is a honed wine if ever there was one. Nougat, grilled peach, steel, mineral, orange rind and lemongrass characters put on a powerful display, lemon blossom notes then rising through the finish. Despite its colour this is a wine with yet plenty up its sleeve. The length of the finish here though puts a significant positive emphasis on the quality on offer. Drink 2027 - 2031+
95 Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front