Punt Road Chardonnay 2021
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Notes of flint and honeysuckle. On the palate, nougat and tangerine, with a hint of nutty oak. Persistent and fine boned, true to the mild 2021 harvest.
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Give this a little aeration in glass and don’t drink it too cold. It will reward with its own multifaceted personality—a quite different one from the last vintage. Both warm and cool, it evokes the sun warming the earth after a much-needed rain: raw, mineral streaked and pebble strewn. There is ginger spice along with florals and citrus. It rakes across the tongue, citrus pithy, with that same warm-stone element to the finish.
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Led by winemaker Tim Shand, Punt Road takes pride in making site-driven, exciting wines that reflect the earthiness and personality of the Yarra Valley through minimalist intervention techniques. They only produce wines from their own vineyard in Coldstream with grapes hand-selected by Winemaker Tim Shand.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.