2022 Savaterre Chardonnay, Beechworth

Served in Emirates First Class, A great accolade especially when the selection panel literally tastes thousands of the world’s best wines to see which wine will be served in First Class.

Intense, fine flinty texture & chalky grip, it’s restrained, but the power through the palate, and the length is quite something. Sappy & alive. Here’s a Chardonnay of quiet power & finesse. It’s benchmark stuff.

97 points Gary Walsh winefront.com.au

Exceptional style and class through and through. Winemaker Keppel Smith refers to '22 as 'quite a lovely cool but wet vintage.' A thrilling ride awaits with a deep dive into arresting aromas filled with white flowers, stone fruits, Meyer lemon, nougat, almond meal and spice. Floats dreamily on the palate, fine in texture, resonating in fruit and well-judged oak, creamy in texture, bright in energy and acidity.

96 points Jeni Port winecompanion.com.au

Damn this is reductive, demanding an aggressive decant, or an eagle eye in the cellar and plenty of patience. Yet the material lurking behind this flinty, terse carapace is thoroughly impressive: pithy stone fruits, anise, glazed quince and citrus marmalade. Thrilling levels of sheer extract, intensity and length, to boot. Trust me. WAIT! Drinkable now, but best from 2027. Screw cap.

96 points Ned Goodwin MW jamessuckling.com

The 2022 Chardonnay is the best chardonnay I have ever made.

All the Savaterre wines from 2022 are indeed from the best vintage of my life!.

It was a stunning vintage.

Warm days to ensure flavour ripeness followed by cool evenings to help retain acid. Rain at the right time to avoid disease and a long cool finish to the season to impart the subtle flavours we desire.

I am so incredibly pleased and proud of these wine.

Elegance, freshness, complexity, texture, plenitude and precision are the descriptors for this vintage.

The result is incredible.

My Tasting Notes - 2022 Chardonnay

I do not know where to start with this wine.
It is such a complete and complex tapestry of aromas, flavours and texture.

It’s the rare combination of power and amplitude combined with elegance, freshness, precision and tension.

The aroma distracts you from your everyday thoughts. It grabs you and keeps your attention. A subtle flint framing ethereal aromas of ripe grapefruit, curry leaf, preserved lemon, ginger, stone fruit, allspice and fennel.

Even as a young wine its potential is so obvious.

Once tasted I am transported. This is a wine that takes you on a journey of power balanced with finesse, complexity and extraordinary length. Constantly evolving and changing. Beautifully defined by its markedly tensing acidity and length.

Prodigious from the word go.

While currently in the hot flush of youth, this wine will age beautifully for 20 years.

If consuming under 5 years please decant for at least an hour for maximum enjoyment. Will continue to improve over the next 8 – 15 years.
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Keppell Smith Winemaker

Keppell's winemaking technique is a minimalistic, hands-off approach. "It is all about the quality of the fruit from the fantastic site we have here at Savaterre." His approach to winemaking is in the tradition of the fine wines of Burgundy.

In the winery no yeasts are added to the basket pressed juice. "It is all up to wild yeast to start, maintain and finish the fermentation." Keppell particularly likes the layers of complexity a wild yeast fermentation and lengthy lees ageing adds to the wine.

The wine spends a total of 18 months in personally imported French oak barriques and then 6 months in bottle before being released.

Savaterre Chardonnay is in Langton's Classification of Australian Wine and served in Emirates Airlines First Class.