TOLPUDDLE CHARDONNAY 2022

Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"A strong but low yielding vintage for Chardonnay in 2022. On the nose, there is great purity, with florals, lemon, and lime notes. The palate has intensity and flavour but the personality of this wine is defined by its lightness, delicacy, and precision. It has excellent balance, with a crystalline character, fresh acid, and impressive persistence of flavour. The grapes were all hand picked, whole bunch pressed, and fermented in French oak. The wine spent nine months in barrel with gentle stirring as required, then rested in tank on lees.

The coldest vintage we have experienced in more than a decade. Cool conditions especially around the time of flowering resulted in a combination of low yields and concentration of flavour. These cooler conditions which persisted throughout the entire growing season culminated in great natural acidity, now synonymous with Tolpuddle Vineyard fruit."

5 Stars & 98/100 Huon Hooke, The Real Review, September 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"Light bright yellow with a smoky, nutty, barrel fermented bouquet which also packs seaspray/oyster-shell, mixed spices and talcy aromas into the mix. In the mouth it's very intense and focused, tensioned and crisp, without strident acidity but lovely refreshing properties. A superb wine, quietly complex and penetrating, obviously barrel-fermented but not showing too-overt oak. The acidity is bright and refreshing and cleanses the aftertaste. Amazing length. Magical stuff. Drink 2023 – 2037."

98/100 Dave Brookes, James Halliday's Wine Companion (2022 Vintage)
"Another alluring Coal River chardonnay release from the folks at Tolpuddle. It's at once full and concentrated but is reined in by a tight framework of acidity, coiling on rails of minerality before powering across the palate. Tension and detail on point, light textural phenolic elements give it a sleek and silken mouthfeel. The fruit tones of white peach, nectarine and citrus are cloaked in soft spice, white floral tones, struck match, almond paste and crushed stone and the wine displays a stony elegance and seriousness on the long finish. If we were to talk in hushed tones about what would constitute a Tasmanian Grand Cru chardonnay, the Tolpuddle would be the front-runner. Superb. Drink 2024 – 2034."

96/100 Mike Bennie, The Wine Front, September 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"It’s compact and tense, precise and poised. It tastes fancy from hello and asserts a strong riff of chardonnay’s best assets of green apple, briny acidity, savoury-nutty undertows with a slick of cedary, spicy, cinnamon-meets-clove oak seasoning well measured into it all. Spicy, indeed, refreshing in that way and coolness with a sense of exceptionally judged, just-ripe fruit rippling with authority through the wine. It’s a persistent wine, immensely satisfying with each sip staining the palate gently. Inherently complex, gulpable with drinkability, wonderfully evocative of a cool place. A brilliant, crystalline chardonnay expression on hand.I had a nice chat with Michael Hill Smith MW this past week, with an invitation to return to the Tolpuddle tasting arena. A coup! Meanwhile, the Tolpuddle house style is still distinct in this wine but the flavour profile seems to have increased, pleasingly so. Elegance has long been the headline of course, and more of that here. This would have to be my favourite release of this distinguished wine. Drink 2023 – 2030+."

96/100 Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com (2022 Vintage)
"Aways a very good chardonnay. Often among the New World’s best. This said, it is always a pungent, flinty reductive iteration, considerably different to the more generous norm in these parts. Medium-bodied and typically taut, reeling off truffle, leesy oatmeal and white peach notes across a tautly furled, almost gritty climax of praline and hazelnut accents. This will age exceptionally well."