2018 Redbrook Reserve Chardonnay

winemaker's note

This wine achieves the difficult balance of providing a wonderfully complex Chardonnay drinking experience without sacrificing fruit freshness and vitality. As a result, this expertly made wine will be just as rewarding to lay down as its red counterparts. It will very slowly develop more subtle complexities and character for years to come while ensuring fruit and hence regional character is the focal point of the Redbrook Reserve style.

colour

Light straw with a vibrant green rim. Incredible youthful condition for its vintage.

aroma

The wine shows malt, fresh toast and struck match complexity from wild barrel fermentation.

palate

The palate is seamless, refreshing and tight with ever-lingering flavour that is a highlight of the excellent 2018 Margaret River vintage.

cellaring

Although beautiful now, will continue to develop complexity for at least ten years from vintage. 

vintage

The 2018 vintage in Margaret River was extraordinarily good and one that winemakers always hope for. The season commenced with the winter and the first month of spring all being wet (all over the long-term rainfall average). This set up vine health very well especially as it was coupled with ideal temperatures from September to December inclusive (budburst onwards) – no cold periods and even maximums devoid of heat spikes.

winemaking

At perfect ripeness, the fruit was hand-picked in the early hours of the morning. The gently pressed juice was stirred every six weeks with 100% wild yeast on full solids before ten months on yeast lees in tank. No malolactic fermentation occurred.

The wine was the aged in a combination of 90% one-year-old and 10% new oak barrels. Bottled in January 2018 before being left for maturation in bottle for a year.

region

Margaret River

variety

Chardonnay  

analysis

• Alcohol: 13.5%
• pH: 3.1
• TA 7.79 g/L

Fried lemon and almond coated King George Whiting with crab salad.

perth royal wine awards 2020

Best White Table Wine

Best Wine of Show

Best Western Australian White Table Wine

Best Chardonnay 

wine show of western australia 2021

Margaret River Wine Show 2021

ray jordan wine guide 2021

Such poise and refinement captured so beautifully. This is a marvellous example of the region and the vintage. It predictably has won heaps of bling, and so it should. Minerally, savoury and lean, yet with the power of the 2018 vintage powering through. The palate is extraordinary as it accelerates through to a long, finely crafted finish. This is a modern chardonnay at its best. 

halliday wine companion 2021

With all the gold on the bottle it's a wonder it doesn't topple over. Very toasty oak and rich fruit beneath, this bursts upfront but slows down as it extends through the finish. Great length shows the pedigree of the fruit and the year. 4 trophies and a gold medal, Perth Royal Show '20.