2021 Collector Tiger Tiger Chardonnay, Tumbarumba

If you remember the original 1980s Steven Greenberg song Funkytown (recorded by disco band Lipps Inc.), that’s cool, although I’m singing Pseudo Echo’s rendition while tasting this funky, flinty and fabulous wine. Full of citrus, packed with regional flavour, a zip of texture, oak spice and creamy lees. This is super moreish and complex. ‘Won’t you take me to, Funkytown.’ Well, I’m already there with this chardonnay.

96 points Jane Faulkner winecompanion.com.au Aug 2023

A 'full-orchestra' chardonnay. Tremendously complex, intense and powerful, with cool-climate delicacy and great penetration and persistence driven by its spine-tingling acidity. Very impressive. 13 JUL 2022

95 points Huon Hooke therealreview.com

Tumbarumba chardonnay grown at between 610 and 750m metres above sea level. Standout chardonnay. Piercing, long and complex. Grapefruit and florals, matchsticks and nectarine. There’s a keen flintiness here, a real drive, an impression that everything has been done sans compromise. There’s definitely a good deal of sulphide-funk here but the wine carries it with such authority.

95+ points Campbell Mattinson winefront.com.au Drink 2023-2030+ Mar 2022

Having grown up in the area, Alex got his first taste of winemaking with Edgar Riek, a pioneer of the Canberra District at Lake George. But it was working as winemaker for Hardys’ flagship winery in the district from 2000 that really developed his intimate knowledge of the region, climate, soils and vineyards.

“I then started Collector Wines at a time when the first really complete expressions of the Canberra District and surrounding terroir had begun to emerge. There was a lot of raw but unrealized potential in the soils and the vineyards, and I was drawn to it,” he says.

Alex is the ultimate collector, carefully working with the best parcels of fruit to craft wines that perfectly express their varietal and place. His vision for the wine begins in the vineyard, as each site requires its own approach. For the vineyards we manage, our practices are oriented towards building up soil carbon, water-holding capacity and vineyard biodiversity. Alex also works closely with select growers in the region and beyond. In the winery, attention to detail and discipline ensure a consistent focus on quality.

Of Alex, James Halliday has said, “He is not known to speak much… so you have to remain alert to appreciate his unparalleled sense of humour. No such attention is needed for his wines, which are consistently excellent, their elegance appropriate for their maker.”

Possessing the characteristic freshness, refinement and flint of the Tiger Tiger, the wine is fresh on the nose with aromas of white flowers, grapefruit and flint. A changing and complex wine of depth and concentration that with time in the glass reveals lemon curd, brioche and spent matchsticks. The palate is focussed, mouth-filling and long. The wine will metamorphose and take on complexity with age.