2025 Corymbia Rocket’s Vineyard Chenin Blanc

A delicious Chenin Blanc that’s shapely, fresh and focused.

A portion of this wine was fermented and matured in seasoned French oak barriques. Brilliant water like core with green tinged edges. Pear, red apple skin and quince aromas are expelled out of the glass followed by a faint whiff of honeysuckle and cinnamon spice. Delicious pear, red apple and lime fruits make a shapely entrance onto the palate. Quince, delicate musk and mineral elements lie underneath. Fresh bracing acidity imparting a slatey feel across the long focused finish.
Drink over the next 5-6 years.
Alc. 12.8%

Other Reviews….
The level of bang for buck here is ludicrous. One of Australia's more complex, exciting textural white wines lays in the glass. Catch it in its youth for the crystalline texture, the sea spray, green almond, Pink Lady apple juice characters, citrus blossom lift, cool, slate-like mineral finish and rush of slippery texture that feels glassy as it does gently sticky. An impressive wine of detail in fruit, florals, minerality and yet one that holds attention for high-end drinkability, too. Drink by 2032.
95+ Points
Mike Bennie - James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion

It’s probably a long running joke how much I dislike Chenin Blanc, aside from that time, quite recently in fact, I was served a bottle of Thibaud Boudignon Anjou 2023, blind, and loved it and thought it might be a frisky Chardonnay. Aside that, still usually a high barf level for me. That being said, Corymbia make a good fist of it. I drink a fair bit of pandan leaf tea, also bancha twig tea (Kukicha) and Proper Strong Yorkshire Tea. I’m a tea man over coffee. Proper wine people, I think, are tea people. You can’t really trust coffee people. Also, mainly, they come from Melbourne.
Green pear, apple, a smoky almond thing, a bit saline, also some chamomile and green tea perfume. It’s crisp, has excellent texture, a quiet pear skin and almond grip, some Parmesan rind savoury stuff, with a bright, nutty and juicy finish of very good length offering a powdery grip to close. Very good. Also, quite refreshing. I think maybe the best release of this wine to date?
Drink 2026-2031+
94 Points
Gary Walsh – The Wine Front

The 2025 Chenin Blanc is waxy and textural, lithe and fresh. Like so many Chenin Blancs, it is certain not to show its dimensional complexity for several years yet, though drinking it so early in its life gives us a great indication as to the direction it will take in the future. So, aromatically, the wine leads with brine and white flowers, cheesecloth, green apple and cold tea. On the palate, the wine's production rises to the fore. Extended time on the lees and the inclusion of old/neutral French oak enhance the structure and texture of the wine, both of which remain steadfastly invisible, which is a wonderful thing. The 2025 season was warm and dry but saw none of the prolonged heat that was present in the previous 2024 season. As a result, the 2025 wines have been exceptional, particularly those that come from healthy vineyards—as this has—that were able to use the winter of 2024 for reprieve and much needed rest. 12.8% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2026-2040.
The dry-grown, organic certified Corymbia vineyard—Rocket's vineyard—is situated in Upper Swan, with a dramatic view of the Darling Scarp beyond. The vineyard was planted by Rob Mann and his father, Tony Mann (a.k.a. Rocket), in 1992 on Houghton loam soils. The Chenin Blanc vines are a massal selection called the Eric Noack selection, planted at a density of 1,540 vines per hectare. The wine has 12.8% alcohol, a pH of 3.33 and 6.3 grams per liter of total acidity.
94 points
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate