2024 Bannockburn S.R.H. 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 S.R.H. Chardonnay is sourced from a distinctive 12-row, 2.46-acre parcel at Bannockburn’s Olive Tree Hill vineyard, planted in 1976 to the P58 clone. These oldest Chardonnay vines sit mid-slope on a north-facing aspect, where complex soils of clay, limestone, and ancient marine sediment—remnants of an old seabed—impart profound character and depth.
Hand-picked fruit was whole-bunch pressed, settled overnight, and fermented with wild yeasts in French oak hogsheads, around 30% new. Malolactic fermentation was completed on 70% of the blend, with the balance blocked, before the wine rested on lees, unstirred, for 10 months. The result is a Chardonnay of intensity and finesse, combining layered fruit, mineral drive, and finely tuned oak into a wine of distinctive site expression.
Alc. 13.5%

Other Reviews....
The 12 rows of chardonnay that this wine is picked from are unique on the Bannockburn property in that they sit on an ancient sea bed. They were planted in the mid 1970s.
There’s flavour and texture but, even so, this feels built for the cellar, as it customarily does. Hay, oysters, saltbush and tonic notes thread through stonefruit, cream, nougat and steel. We’re looking at a wine in mid-flight; it hasn’t yet landed and/or opened its doors to the world. It will be beautiful when it does. There’s a lot of savoury complexity going on here. A lot of X factor. Drink 202 -2034+.
95+ Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front