Avis professionnels
Robert Parker (100)
Having tasted five bottles of this remarkable wine over the past year (most of them mine), I can confirm that it is evolving and changing with time in the bottle, but each time I taste it, I am amazed by its ability to highlight parts of the wine I may not have focused on the last time I tasted it. Twice this week, the 2021 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay has spoken first of its reduction and flint: it is bony and austere and taut, and I mean this in the best of ways. It speaks of its architecture currently, over its fruit. Yet it is propelled by the fruit. Giaconda manages focus and precision alongside its famous reduction, and this is what separates it from other producers in the country. It may be easy to can the reduction if it's not your preferred quality in Chardonnay, but the fruit and phenolic focus of the wine is untouchable. This is inimitable. I'm running out of bottles to taste, but I've loved every single one so far.
James Suckling (97)
A glossy chardonnay that plays the reductive hand of match-struck flintiness on the nose. Delving deeper, white grape, fig, green plum, cantaloupe and peach. Distinctly mid-weighted, but more tightly furled than in the past, there is ample tension as much as intensity. I appreciate the chewy seams, too, imparting an additional element of complexity to the structural lattice of mineral pungency and granitic freshness. A tad green, to be critical, but an excellent wine in all. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.
Jancis Robinson (17.50)
Aged for 12 months in French oak (30% new).
Tasted blind. Developed, toffee-apple nose. Sweetness to the fruit, as well as persistence. No stylisation here, but evokes everything that Chardonnay can achieve. A standout. Richard Hemming MW
Vinous (98)
The 2021 Chardonnay shows fantastic definition, power and length. Pithy aromas of musky peach, nougat, flint, gunpowder and granitic minerality frame this wine, leaning heavily on earth tones. Chewy in texture, this is like a mini-2017—incredibly long and tight, with the depths of its charms yet to be unveiled. A backbone of chalky acidity maintains tension and holds shape through the exceptionally long finish.
Jasper Morris (99)
An excellent vintage in Beechworth with average winter rains carrying over into spring, before a mild and temperate summer. There’s immediate and immense power on display aromatically, and a veritable explosion of complexity. Intense flint and matchstick reduction are underpinned by savoury woodsmoke and quality cedar char before air and warmth unlock bergamot tea, beeswax, nectarine, lemon rind, hay, and further matchstick minerality. The palate is powerful and seductive, sapid and complex with a glycerol-like texture cut by crystalline mineral tension. Flint, smoke, lemon wax, nectarine, fine cedar, bergamot tea and brown spices saturate the palate before being wrapped up in bright, clean acidity and integrated phenolics to a seemingly endless finish. A chiselled, muscular, and powerfully complex wine. Drink from 2024-2036. Tasted Apr 2024. Tasted by: Tom Kline.
