Western Australian Chardonnay panel tasting results

60 Western Australian Chardonnays tasted with 3 Exceptional, 4 Outstanding and 22 Highly Recommended

The tasters: Sarah Ahmed, Roger Jones and Anthony Rose

Scroll down to see the tasting notes & scores

The verdict

Only 14 of the wines in our tasting of 60 Western Australian Chardonnays were from outside Margaret River: three from Great Southern as well as three from its sub-region of Frankland River and another from the Mount Barker sub-region; one from Geographe; one from Pemberton; and five from the generic appellation of Western Australia. It wasn’t just that Margaret River dominated the tasting numerically but, more significantly, it took the top 13 spots, with only Hay Shed Hill from Geographe and Harewood Estate from Great Southern sneaking into the top 20.

This predominance of quality Chardonnay in Margaret River is hardly an eyebrow-raiser. Ever since Leeuwin Estate pioneered the style, closely followed by the likes of Vasse Felix, Cullen, Moss Wood and Cape Mentelle, Margaret River has emerged as one of Australia’s prime regions for quality Chardonnay, thanks to its unique combination of maritime- Mediterranean climate and the commitment of a growing band of small producers to making world- class Chardonnay.

In some ways, this was an unusual tasting, being a ‘game of two halves’, to use a footballing analogy. The 2017 vintage constituted just over half of the wines tasted, but we were not greatly enamoured with these younger wines and wondered why they didn’t meet our admittedly high expectations. A majority at the lower price points were characterised by a lack of fruit depth and texture, having a linear quality – or even a meanness – that made them one-dimensional. Sarah Ahmed called them ‘citrus zingers’. Most of these hovered around the 13% abv mark, or lower, suggesting perhaps early-picked fruit or highish yields. To be fair, there were exceptions – notably the excellent Deep Woods Estate, Gralyn Estate, Willow Bridge Estate and Miles from Nowhere in the top 20, plus four more Highly Recommended wines: LAS Vino, Brookland Valley, Fraser Gallup, Houghton and Marchand & Burch.

As we broached the 2016s and 2015s, we sunk our collective teeth into a bunch of excellent wines that really did meet – and on occasion exceed – expectations. Those in the top flight of Exceptional and Outstanding were everything we hoped for from Margaret River: beautifully crafted, powerfully expressive Chardonnays with complexity, fruit concentration, length, balance and ageworthiness. There was even a certain ‘funkiness’ on occasion; an individuality that spoke of an understanding of the viticulture, of first-rate winemaking and the distinctiveness of the region.

To an extent, we felt that some of the character of these world-class Chardonnays derived from the particular freshness, expression and concentration of the Gin Gin clone, also known as the Mendoza clone.

It came as little surprise to see Deep Woods, Cullen, McHenry Hohnen, Pierro, Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix’s Heytesbury in the top flight, and it was good to see them joined by less well-known names such as Gralyn, Driftwood, Flowstone and Hamelin Bay, with a good performance outside Margaret River from Willow Bridge. While the focus has to date been largely on winemaking, growers are now taking on board differences of soil type and growing methods that take account of local climatic factors to deliver complexity, flavour and structure.

The scores

60 wines tasted

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release 100% Chardonnays from Western Australia

Exceptional 3

Outstanding 4

Highly Recommended 22

Recommended 25

Commended 5

Fair 1

Poor 0

Faulty 0

The judges

Sarah Ahmed

Ahmed is an awarded wine writer, educator and judge specialising in Australia and Portugal. In addition to publishing her own site, thewinedetective.co.uk, Ahmed has contributed to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, Jancis Robinson MW’s The Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine.

Roger Jones

Jones owns award-winning restaurant The Harrow at Little Bedwyn, together with his wife Sue. Both a wine critic and Michelin-starred chef, he frequently visits Australia to promote food and wine pairing, and set up The Tri Nations Wine Challenge to promote wines from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Anthony Rose

Rose is the wine correspondent for the Independent and i newspapers and writes for publications including Decanter and The World of Fine Wine. He has been named Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year and Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year. Rose is DWWA Regional co-Chair for Australia.

About Western Australian Chardonnay

The sheer scale of Western Australia’s wine regions is mind-boggling. If evidence were needed, the scenic drive from Perth south to Mount Barker takes a good four hours. Fanning out west to the Indian Ocean and east to the Southern Ocean, Western Australia’s nine regions are geographically reminiscent of South Africa’s Western Cape except for one major detail: the state’s main concentration of vineyards and wineries lies in a single region, Margaret River. Indeed, for many, Margaret River is Western Australia.

Excluding inland Perth Hills, Blackwood Valley, Manjimup and Pemberton, five of the nine wine regions are lapped by the two great oceans, but significantly, Margaret River is girdled by the Indian Ocean on three sides, giving a maritime-Mediterranean climate. Sitting on the western side of the Great Sandy Desert, with moderate annual rainfall, it enjoys mild to warm vintages in most years. The other four coastal regions are Swan Districts, Peel, Geographe and the sprawling Great Southern. While Margaret River is king, pockets of Great Southern and cooler climate areas of Geographe in particular make tight, cool-climate Chardonnay.

Margaret River

Identified in 1965 by Dr John Gladstones as a viticultural paradise, Margaret River, with its preponderance of small wineries, tourism, beaches and craft community, has proved to be not just primus inter pares in Australia’s west, but in the entirety of Australia. Nearly 100km long and up to 27km wide, Margaret River has become internationally recognised for three main styles: elegant Bordeaux-like reds based on Cabernet Sauvignon, Graves-style blends of Semillon and Sauvignon, and of course Chardonnay. The latter is so prized that the average price per tonne of grapes is A$1,760, compared to the Australia average of A$565.

Leeuwin Estate was one of the region’s pioneers of Chardonnay with its Art Series label. It’s always been a distinctive, complex style with the full Burgundian treatment and was originally the model for the concentrated, long-lived style of Western Australian Chardonnay whose power, vibrancy and balance derives equally from the maritime climate, the gravelly, sandy loams and granitic terroir and the predominantly high-acid Gin Gin (Mendoza) clones. On occasion it can lack a dimension where early picking emphasises its greenness.

However, Margaret River Chardonnay has evolved since the pioneering days of Leeuwin as winemakers continue to create a style distinguishing it from Australia’s other great Chardonnay regions, notably Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley and Tasmania.

See all 60 wines from this panel tasting

Western Australia: the facts

Blackwood Valley 31% white; 20 wineries, 50 vineyards covering more than 450ha

Geographe 38% white; covering the sub-regions of Ferguson Valley, Donnybrook, Harvey, Capel and Busselton

Great Southern 40% white; 1,600ha under vine, 70 producers in five sub-regions: Frankland River, Mount Barker, Denmark, Albany, Porongorup

Manjimup 33% white; 10 wineries

Margaret River Planted to 47% white varieties; 5,800ha under vine, of which more than 800ha are Chardonnay (17% of production). 150 wine producers and 300 growers

Peel 61% white; an emerging region with over 200ha

Pemberton 53% white; 26 wineries

Perth Hills 46% white; a young wine region (since 1999) with 22 wineries

Swan District 71% white; one of Australia’s oldest wine regions first planted in 1829

Western Australia: know your vintages

2018 Already looks excellent. A vintage of fruit concentration, freshness and clarity thanks to a long, dry, warm summer.

2017 A late vintage and the coolest since 2006. Top wines will be complex and structured; others will be linear and high acid.

2016 Cool nights and lower than average rainfall. Vibrant and elegant Chardonnays, if mildew and botrytis were kept at bay.

2015 A warm year; quite low yields. Early vintage in Margaret River; weighty peach fruit for softness with good acid retention.

2014 A warmish vintage. The tail of Cyclone Olwyn hit after most white grapes were picked. Chardonnay with good intensity of flavour and freshness.

2013 A warm, relatively early year. Typical Margaret River intensity of flavour and good mineral character in some sites.

Top Western Australian Chardonnays from the panel tasting:

See all of the wines tasted here

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