The 2023 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay leads with an abundance of smoky, nutty, savory reduction. Here, the 2023 feels less exotic and softly spoken than the 2022 tasted alongside, with the 2023 showing more tension and focus. Neither has the extraordinary, otherworldly character of the 2021, also tasted alongside, yet the differences between the three is almost as exciting as having three vintages of Giaconda Chardonnay open at the same time. The 2023 only gets better the longer it is opened, revealing white peach, curry leaf, pink grapefruit acidity, blood orange, coffee grounds, graphite and mustard seeds. What a wine. The sheer intensity of flavor here is astonishing—it penetrates the palate and soars long into the memory. Far from pinching the finish, the reduction provokes a physical response, one that requires more drinking to satiate. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. I recently tasted this wine blind in Burgundy (2022 vintage), and while the wine was immediately recognizable to me, it really showed the specific personality of reduction at this estate, as compared to the others tasted that evening. The comparison was fascinating, in that Giaconda was revealed to be very savory, backed by voluminous, exotic fruit, while the other wines showed more verdancy to their fruit profiles, which in turn influenced the reduction. Fascinating and valuable. I also tasted this wine as its component parts when I visited the estate in January 2024, and seeing each of the barrels as individuals and then now witnessing the holistic conglomeration of them is very cool. The wine makes more sense to me, and it's infinitely more kaleidoscopic. Published: Apr 11, 2025 The Giaconda Chardonnay is as revered within Australia as it is without. The style feels to me to be 50% by hand and 50% by vine (the only winery in Australia to beguile me so with this construction), although when you consider the philosophies within the winery, this can hardly be right. Wild yeasts for fermentation and malolactic fermentation, maturation in French oak, minimal sulfur addition and bottled unfiltered. The winery and cellar are set up for gravity flow. The fruit is grown in "gravel, clay soil in the foothill of the Victorian Alps," handpicked, crushed, then basket pressed (a process less commonly undertaken in Australia, although common in Burgundy) prior to being transferred to oak (30% new) for maturation. The wine is distinct and of the vineyard. I always get a bush-smoke/camphor/eucalypt/struck-match character to these wines—more or less pronounced depending on the vintage—and when tasted blind in an Australian tasting, these characteristics ALWAYS point to Giaconda. When tasted in an international context, I am usually taken to Grand Cru Puligny, which leaves me chuckling afterwards. These wines are not easy to procure, but they are cheap by international standards. A national treasure to be sure. Drink 2025 - 2043.
Source: Robert Parker.