Savaterre 2017 Chardonnay
Vintage 2017 was a textbook year. I could not have dreamt of a better year to grow grapes especially chardonnay.
The vines are now 24 years old, close planted and organically grown. These are in the golden years in a grapevines productive life.
This wine has had some very encouraging reviews.
"Hand-harvested fruit across a tightly planted vineyard in Beechworth serves a sleek chassis, driven by thirst-slaking acid cylinders and a body toned by peach, nectarine, apricot and the finest French oak. This mid-weighted beauty has settled into a finely tuned groove of tension and generosity. Nougatine and creamy cashew at its core, conferring warmth. Layered, impeccably integrated and searingly long, this is very fine...Rating 97 Points." Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday's Wine Companion 2020
"Stonefruit, lemon peel, fennel, white flowers, nougat and some struck match. It’s flavoursome, a little toasty and spicy, intense almost grapefruity acidity along with a caramel richness, distinct chalky/quartz-like texture, pulp and pith citrus bitterness on a very long finish. A very good Chardonnay here. Very. Rated : 95 Points" Gary Walsh - The Wine Front TWF
My Tasting Notes
On the nose it is initially subtle and nuanced. With some air the wine begins to reveal itself, beginning with some hazelnuts, gun flint, nougat and exotic white flower interlinked with citrus infused spice, saline and minerality.
Precise, powerful, complex and distinctly Savaterre.
After time the pedigree of this wine starts to really shine. It’s powerful and confident.
The palate is intensely concentrated with a frame of ripe, fine acidity. Flavours of pear, pink grapefruit, white peach, praline and toasted hazelnuts are wrapped in the core of fine acidity. Saline oyster shell and mineral texture persist through the long finish.
Here's a review from Ned Goodwin, Master of Wine that I haven't had a chance to share with you.
Ned Goodwin MW from Halliday's Wine Companion, reflects in this article on a blind tasting of Beechworth's best chardonnays, pitted against top examples from other regions here in Australia and over there in France. Ned was tasting our previous vintage, the 2016 Savaterre Chardonnay. TWC
"The aim of the exercise was not only to assess Beechworth chardonnay as a paragon of exceptional quality – already an established archetype, furthered by the praise of commentators such as Jancis Robinson MW – but also to pit the best examples against superlative wines from other premium chardonnay regions. Those on show included wines from Margaret River, Mornington Peninsula, the Yarra Valley, and the inevitable benchmark of Burgundy. The hope was that the Beechworth wines would exhibit a strong regional commonality.
While there were outstanding wines from Sentio, Domenica, Piano Piano, Giaconda and Sorrenberg – all from the warm and for many challenging 2016 vintage – my favourite was from Savaterre. The vintage’s heat may have explained the volatility leading off the nose, however, the generous palate billowed across multitudinous layers of stone fruit, tangerine, kumquat, toasted nuts and creamed kernel, unfolding across an exceptionally long finish – a brilliant wine and only just overshadowed by an outsider, Domaine Dujac Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres".
This is the start of a long journey for this wine. Drink in the next 16 years.
Please open this wine and decant a few hours before enjoyment as this wine continues to evolve and reveal its nuances over many hours.