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VASSE FELIX HEYTESBURY CHARDONNAY 2023

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5 Stars
5 Stars The Real Review
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99 Points

One of the Best Chardonnays in the World!

James Halliday’s White Wine of the Year 25/26

  • Closure: Screw Cap
  • Unit: Each
  • Volume: 750ml
  • Alcohol: 13.0%
  • Grape: 100% Chardonnay

Original price was: $140.00.Current price is: $120.00.

One of the Best Chardonnays in the World!

James Halliday’s White Wine of the Year 25/26

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2026 White Wine of the Year & Chardonnay of the Year – James Halliday's Wine Awards 2025/2026


Long considered one of Margaret River’s top Chardonnays, this 2023 is a beauty. This wine walks a fine line between funkiness and purity. Quite a hedonistic wine with seductive ripe fruit flavours mixing with toasted nuts and smoke. Mouth-filling with detailed complexity.


Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"Wonderfully complex, showing classic aromas of fine stone flint, lamb fat, and champignon, alongside custard lemon biscuits. Subtle hints of wet limestone and ocean spray evoke the region’s maritime influence, while a touch of white leather and sweet new straw bring savoury notes. Beautifully structured with long taut acid lines that provide strength and power. A fine, dry phenolic texture adds a layer of tension, complementing the wine’s depth. The palate evolves with lingering flavours of grapefruit, clotted cream and hints of ginger and lime leaf."


99/100 Jane Faulkner, James Halliday's Wine Companion (2023 Vintage)
"Score awarded by the Halliday tasting panel at the annual Awards judging. JF writes: When it comes to the best of the best, provenance is paramount. And taste memory utmost, especially when tasting Heytesbury made under Virginia Willcock’s tutelage (in ’26 she clocks up 20 years as chief winemaker at Vasse Felix, during which time she has transformed chardonnay in the region and beyond). Her influence is here in this wine, and ’23 will be known as one of the finest. It's hard to explain because it’s still very tightly wound, yet it has depth and volume. Oscillating between power and refinement, intensity and pure drinking pleasure. Grapefruit, Meyer lemon, a crushed oyster shell note, flinty, moreish sulphides, texture, mouth-watering, pure acidity and so much more besides. Nothing else to say other than that this is outstanding."


97+/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, Wine Advocate, June 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"The 2023 Heytesbury Chardonnay reveals all the poise and balance we expect from the season. It is awesome. This feels totally weighted on the back palate. The fruit intensity, coupled with powerful acidity and phenolic presence, fully penetrates beyond mere "flavor experience" and dives deep into the senses; the only option left is to ride that wave until it slowly fades. It's a persistent, sophisticated wine of latent power and patience. While this is released two years from harvest, it doesn't start to show its complex potential until around five years from harvest and far beyond that. It's slow to emerge and slow to age. This is a 100% Gingin clone Chardonnay, matured in French oak barriques, 52% new, for nine months, with seven months blended in tank prior to bottling."


97/100 Cassandra Charlick, Decanter UK, August 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"Fleshy, ripe stone fruit with nice flinty line. Creamy lemon shortbread with pillowy plumpness. An illusion of an easy-drinking, salted butter Chardonnay. Beneath that breezy exterior this has layer upon layer of complexity, and the oak is seamlessly integrated. Delightful sweetness of fruit at the core, grilled white peach with umami edges of toast and vanilla creaminess. Classic, comforting Chardonnay. Long waves of flavour with volume and delicacy, and a wild oceanic undercurrent. Gingin clone, wild yeast, 16 months' ageing – nine in oak, seven blended in tank."


97/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, April 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"The line of acidity here is keen but it’s grapefruit-driven rather than pure citrus, which is a good if not great thing, and it has the scaffolding of both fruit and flint to make it work, as does the general infusion of creamy, cedarwood oak. This release of Heytesbury looks as though it’s been set for the long-term rather than for short-term enjoyment; it’s the kind of wine that folks will be marvelling over in twenty plus years, so outstanding is its quality. It’s powerful, it’s long, it’s nuanced and it’s complex. Stash some of this release. It’s a beauty, and will turn out magnificent."


97/100 James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, October 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"An intensely complex and inviting nose with aromas of lemon curd, grapefruit rind, orange blossoms and gunsmoke. The medium-bodied palate has a textural mouthfeel and vivid acidity, showing notes of lime zest, mandarin pith, fresh pineapple and cookies. Multidimensional and giving with an underlying tension. Exceptional."


5 Stars & 96/100 Aaron Basher, The Real Review, December 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Fine, fragrant and pithy aromas of grapefruit, struck match, melon skin, jasmine, just-ripe white peach, wet slate and green mango. Textured, focussed and layered, with concentration, purity and precision. Stone fruit, citrus, nutty oak, nougat and slatey, mineral acidity are all driving the palate. There’s texture, length and absolute class here."

We provide a door to door delivery service nationwide. Delivery charges are calculated on a 12 bottle case or part there of.

Delivery charges are calculated during the checkout process based off your address post code. Please ensure you choose the correct post code. We will advise you if you have chosen the incorrect post code.

You may also choose to 'pick up' your order from our wine shop at 188 Durham Street South, Christchurch.

For further details on prices and delivery options please go to the Delivery & Returns section of our site.

If for any reason you are not entirely happy with your order or you suspect that it may be affected by a quality issue, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will remedy the problem straight away. Contact us on (03) 3655134.

Note, for orders of 1 - 2 bottles we charge an additional $6 for packaging. To ensure the safety of the bottles we use specially designed posting boxes.

Can't find what you're looking for or we don't have enough product in stock? Get in touch with us and we'll see what we can do.

Founded in 1967 by Dr. Tom Cullity, Vasse Felix holds the distinction of being Margaret River's first wine estate. Dr. Cullity, a respected Cardiologist, was inspired by his European travels to pursue his passion for winemaking. He was guided by the research of Dr. John Gladstones and Professor Harold Olmo, which pointed to the Margaret River region as an ideal location for crafting fine wines. Despite initial skepticism from the local community, Cullity established a small winemaking facility and produced the region's first commercial wines.

The name "Vasse Felix" was chosen by Cullity as a tribute to Thomas Timothèe Vasse, an Assistant Helmsman from the Baudin Expedition who disappeared in 1801. He hoped to bring a happier fate to his vineyard, as 'felix' means happy or lucky in Latin.

The Peregrine Falcon on the label commemorates an unsuccessful attempt at falconry during the first vintage in 1971 to protect the grapes from native birds. The falcon, when released, flew into the forest and never returned.

The winery's enduring philosophy, set by its founder, is to produce the "best possible wine." Today, the estate continues to focus on its key varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Vasse Felix

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