Garagiste Merricks Chardonnay comes from the Merricks Grove vineyard and its grey sandy loam marbled with red ironstone.
Up here, the altitude and coastal breezes seem to compress the wines’ fruit leaving a more coiled mouth feel and the soils gift a more mineral-noted wine than the Tuerong. Partial malolactic fermentation bolsters the wine’s satiny texture, but the fine, natural acidity and mineral freshness remind us of its cool-climate origins. It’s pure and seamless with white blossom and citrus aromas underpinned by some savoury flint-like complexity. Barrel fermented in 500-litre puncheons (20% new), the wine is matured on lees for 10 months before bottling
Review for the 2013: “Complete wine. Intense, complex and lengthy. Flavoursome but frisky, barley, lime, white peach and apple, the input from spicy, nutty oak both seductive and well judged. The combination of savouriness and sweetness here brings immense pleasure but it’s the length of flavour that gets the heart racing.” 97 points, James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion 2016
“Usual Mornington Peninsula vinification for a wine of unusual quality. There is a sleight of hand to the way these Garagiste Chardonnays are made that turns on the acidity of the wines and the use of partial mlf. The wine has a brightness that is almost, but not quite, fierceness. A captivating style. 152 dozen made.” 97 points, James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion 2017 edition
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.