Savaterre Chardonnay 2024

Like all of Savaterre’s wines, there is an immediacy from the very first sip- an arresting intensity that leaves no doubt you are tasting something special. It is a wine of remarkable generosity and presence, delivering a sense of luxury that far exceeds its price. Brilliantly aromatic, it opens with vibrant lime and grapefruit, layered with smoke, toasted spices, grilled nuts, yellow peach and a hint of browned butter. The palate is expansive and powerful, yet never heavy, lifted instead by a vibrant thread of tangy acidity that gives the wine energy and drive. Despite its richness, every line is beautifully defined, with striking clarity and purity.

Complex and captivating, citrus and orchard fruits intertwine with notes of buttermilk, cashew and subtle oak spice, creating a wine of remarkable depth and precision. It possesses the grip and persistence that mark truly great Chardonnay, with flavours that linger long after the final sip. Built to reward patience, this is a wine with decades of evolution ahead.

Here is the art of winemaker laid bare, in all of its beauty as well as mystery. It’s a slow reveal, all the better to take in a wine both plush in fruit and fine in structure, citrusy fresh and oak defined, savoury influenced and varietally pure. Complex, tangy fresh aromas arrive Beechworth-bright before leading into a tightly packed, concentrated palate of lemon citrus, grapefruit, stone fruits and toasted almonds creamily textured with honeysuckle aromatics. A suitable ending with saline cut and grip on the long finish. 97 points – Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

Light to mid yellow, bright in the glass, and the bouquet is complex and subtly detailed, not big on reduction this year, but with a controlled flintiness. Minerals and hazelnuts. The palate has a dab of juicy fruit sweetness at the core, and the flavour is profoundly deep and long-lasting. A concentrated, multi-faceted and thoroughly gorgeous chardonnay. 97 points – Huon Hooke, The Real Review