2022 Altaness Chardonnay $55

Wine South Tasmania is a volunteer marketing group comprising many of Southern Tasmania's best small-scale wine producers. Its two major annual events - the Southern Open Vineyards Weekend and the Spring in the Vines Festival - are always well supported by wine lovers who welcome the opportunity to taste wines that are otherwise difficult to find. This current release Chardonnay is a prime example of why the events are so worthwhile and what can be uncovered on a well-planned outing.

Duncan Ferguson and Susana Fernandez planted vines on their 21ha Altaness property at Lymington in the Huon Valley back in 2016. They'd sold up their very successful Cascabel Vineyard in McLaren Vale and moved to Tasmania in the pursuit of making world-class, cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Their 4.5ha vineyard in the McLaren Vale was way too hot for their liking. Having lived and worked in Europe, their personal preferences favoured elegant, food-friendly wine styles.

When you taste this striking Chardonnay on the couple's home turf, you don't have to be Einstein to understand their reasons for moving camp. Now four years of age, the wine is really starting to hit its straps. It looks great in the glass - a brilliant, glowing green-gold hue, with nary a sin that it was bottled without fining or filtering after its 15 months in brand new French oak. One single, solitary barrel, would you believe? (Total production: 60 dozen bottles.)

The ultra-cool Huon Valley is renowned for its top-flight Pinot Noirs. But as much as I am enormously found of them, there's something really special about the Chardonnays produced on these challenging sites. Previously disparate notes on the nose - very subtle struck match, white nectarine, lime leaf, white flowers and understated vanillin oak - have almost entirely become interwoven as a result of the wine's two years or so in bottle. 

The palate walks (or perhaps glides along) hand-in-hand with the aromatics. Barely medium-bodied in weight and texture, it delivers plenty of drinking pleasure. Nectarine and citrus fruit characters are neatly framed by minerally notes typical of the region, along with the valley's characteristic fresh natural acidity. Like all good Chardonnays, the wine finishes dry and savoury, thanks to those very fine oak tannins. 

If you're lucky, the wine may still be around at Wine South's next event. If you don't want to miss out on something really smart, you'll give Duncan and Susana a call and make arrangements to visit. It's always a pleasure seeing them.

Source: Altaness winery during Wine South's Open Vineyards Weekend.

www.altaness.com