2023 Ashton Hills Reserve Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills

The 2023 Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay leads with crushed nuts and yellow peach, brine and crushed shells, white nectarine and green apple. On the palate, the wine is creamy and totally pleasurable to drink: it feels good in the mouth. This flows in rivulets of flavor across the palate, with a skein of tarragon and shaved fennel through the finish. The fruit for this wine was sourced from three vineyards in the Piccadilly Valley: Bowhouse, Woods Hill and Virgara. It was handpicked, whole-bunch pressed to French oak puncheons and barriques and then matured on solids for nine months prior to bottling. This is a charming wine here, highly recommended. 12% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

95 points Erin Larkin robertparker.com

Very minerally and precise, with aromas of melon peel, flint and grapefruit rind. The palate has electric acidity from this cool vintage, with some generous texture on the mid-palate coming from battonage in barrel. Notes of lime zest, yellow apples and slate with a saline edge. A laser beam that will soften in time. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

94 points jamessuckling.com

This Reserve wine is produced from selecting the best barrels. Wild-yeast fermented in new and seasoned French oak. There are 120 dozen produced of this wine. Quite rich and striking scents of stone fruits, green mango, vanilla cream, cinnamon and jasmine. There's a plushness to the palate, a supple creaminess perhaps oak-derived but well adjudicated in the more subtle fruit characters of the season. Expect more mixed stone fruit flavours and vanilla cream, a briny line of minerally acidity, a soft, long finish of sweet spice and pulpy grapefruit juice. While sitting just shy of medium weight, there's stacks of character here. Understatement is the order of the day, but so is pleasure and interest.

94 points Mike Bennie winecompanion.com.au

Ashton Hills was founded in the early 1980s by Stephen George, a true pioneer of cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Adelaide Hills. Today the estate sits within the Wirra Wirra family, and the wines are crafted by winemaker Liam Van Pelt, whose background in cool climate viticulture has sharpened the precision and energy of the range. The Reserve Chardonnay is sourced from the high altitude Piccadilly Valley, one of the coldest and most prized Chardonnay sites in South Australia. Long, slow ripening in this pocket preserves acidity and builds layered flavour without excess weight.

Viticulture is meticulous, with selective harvesting of the best performing blocks. Whole bunch pressing protects finesse, fermentation often includes wild yeasts for complexity, and maturation in fine French oak builds structure without overt sweetness. Extended lees contact adds a creamy mid palate, yet the line remains tight and mineral. The philosophy under Liam Van Pelt is clarity, balance and longevity.

Pale gold in colour, the aromas open with white peach, lemon curd and grapefruit layered with cashew, flint and subtle spice. The palate is medium bodied and finely structured, with citrus and stone fruit wrapped in bright acidity and a chalk edged texture. Flavours extend into a long, mineral finish that feels cool, focused and persistent.

It pairs beautifully with oysters, scallops, roast chicken and rich seafood dishes. Already impressive for its tension and detail, it will cellar confidently for ten to fifteen years, gaining nutty and savoury complexity.

This is Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay at serious altitude expression, precise, textural and built to age.